In Australia, Mahfud MD Talks About Terrorism Still A Southeast Asian Latent Threat

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday (14/3/2023). BETWEEN/HO-Kemenko Polhukam

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkpo Polhukam) Mahfud MD emphasized that terrorism is still a serious threat to countries in Southeast Asia.

"In Southeast Asia, terrorism and radicalism will still be a serious threat. Various terror groups affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda still have the potential to disrupt regional stability," Mahfud said during the 9th Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, March 24.

Mahfud emphasized that terrorism is still a latent threat, both with ideological, political, and horizontal conflicts, so that it requires cooperation between the two countries, namely Indonesia and Australia, at various levels.

Mahfud and Australian Cybersecurity Minister Clare O'Neil discussed several things, including Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF), online radicalization, radicalization of women and the younger generation, as well as developments in efforts to counter terrorism and violent-based extremism.

"The radicalization process through social media/internet needs to be given greater attention considering that most of the terror attacks carried out by single actors (lone wolf), most of the perpetrators became victims of the radicalization process through social media/internet," said Mahfud, quoted by Antara.

He told Minister Clare O'Neil that the two countries have collaborated well in efforts to counter terrorism and violent-based extremism through various cooperation mechanisms, both at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels.

Especially at the sub-regional cooperation level, Indonesia-Australia led the meeting with the Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security (SRM) at the ministerial level, and the Senior Official Counter-Terrorism Policy Forum (SOCTPF) meeting at the senior official level. SRM participating countries are Indonesia, Australia, Brunei Darusalam, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

The first SOCTPF meeting in 2021 and the second meeting in 2022 has produced documents for efforts to counter terrorism and violent extremism, mainly high-level principles documents related to child protection that are associated with terrorism and violent-based extremism.

"I really appreciate this outcome, and I hope that the results of the SOCTPF meeting can be approved and recognized by representatives of ministers and high-ranking sub-regional-state officials at the Sub-Regional Meeting meeting which we will hold on March 16," he said.