Yet another controversy about the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) emerged last weekend after the hardline group shared photos of its members participating in a “Bela Negara” (National Defense) training session administered by the military at a base in Lebak, Banten. It set off a fierce debate over whether the armed forces should be giving military training to extremist groups and the base’s commander lost his post amidst the controversy.
The Bela Negara program was launched last year by the military to train civilians how to defend Indonesia from “perceived threats such as communism, drugs and homosexuality”. Despite the base commander losing his position over the FPI debacle, many in the government have staunchly defended allowing the hardliner group to participate in the program, including Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, who said that the law gives all Indonesian citizens (including FPI members) the right to aid in the national defense.
Ryamizard went even further (way further) by saying that citizens who sincerely want to study Pancasila and defend the country should be allowed to participate.
“If they want, we would even take radicals like ISIS. Thus we can be united,” Ryamizard said as quoted by Liputan6.
Now we’ll give Ryamizard the benefit of the doubt and not assume that he in any way approves of ISIS (he has warned Indonesians about the dangers of ISIS on several occasion previously).
But. obviously, Ryamizard puts FPI in the same, or at least a similar, category as radical terrorist organizations like ISIS. And he still thinks they should be allowed to participate in state-sponsored military training.
That’s because, according to the defense minister, having the nation’s armed forces teach civil defense to militant groups will help them rethink their use of violence and fill them with the spirit of nationalism.
“The goal of Bela Negara is to give an understanding that our ideology towards Indonesia is the same. In the end, if necessary, they will become willing to sacrifice themselves for this country, so we must give them a sense of pride. If they are proud they will love this country,” he said.
Ryamizard, as you might remember, is also the person who once said that the LGBT movement was more dangerous than nuclear warfare. And if he truly believes that, then it’s easy to understand how he could think that giving military training to extremist radicals is justified if later they help protect Indonesia from the more pressing threats of gay rights and communism.
