Jakarta – In implementing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s verbal request to the TNI (Indonesian military) to take effective measures to prevent, combat and act against terrorism, the TNI has begun a counter-terrorist campaign using street banners.

A glaring spectacle of this could be seen along roads in the Cilincing area of North Jakarta on Friday October 14. At the time, the president and a number of ministers were in the process of traveling through Cilincing to hold joint prayers with local people at the Nurul Jihad Mosque in Kali Baru.

All along the roads, large green diagonal banners were tied between trees and power poles. Among the banners encountered, two of them had the messages “Beware of terrorist activities for the sake of the country’s security” and “Suicide bombs are not a holy war, terrorism is our mutual enemy”.

This counter-terrorism campaign by the TNI appears new. This could be seen from the fact that the cloth banners had not yet faded. Apparently dozens of counter-terrorism banners had intentionally been put up to coincide with the president’s planed visit to the area.

Related to the call for the TNI to be more effective in preventing, combating and acting against terrorism that was conveyed by the president at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the TNI, the presidential offices are in the process of ordering around 20,000 written messages which will be enlarged and mounted in 2x1 meter frames. At the end of last week, the six messages were taken to the president’s office to be approved for duplication. (INU)

[Translated by James Balowski.]