Series of Bombing in Surabaya, East Java in the last months are the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia

since 2005. Two family attack three churches and a police station killed at least 23 people and hurt
dozens. People were shocked and didn’t believe with the fact that the attacks were done by parents
bringing their children who were also died in the attack. This attack showed us the involvement of family
in the future of terrorism action.

The government of Indonesia so far has implemented some policy to deal with terrorism, which are
counter-terrorism operation, deradicalization program, and providing economic support program for
former terrorist. In addition to these strategic efforts, the Government should also execute preventive
program, social intervention, and involving former militant.

Preventive program targeting the parents is able to prevent radical value to be adopted by their
children. Children tend to adopt their parent’s view, especially when they discuss about the same
extreme ideology. Because of that, preventing program should be started by educating the parents.

Implementing social intervention to fight against extreme ideology can be done by conducting social
activity in the society and community empowerment that involves parents and their children. In this
program we should analyze the needs of the people and their potential that we can empower. The
target is to improve the people’s quality of live in terms of economical, health and educational aspect. If
the children are exposed by many social activity and they can directly feel the benefit of it, they will set
aside the extreme ideology. They will also know that they have many good choices to improve their
quality of live in the future.

The government also has to involve former reputable militant that had underwent terrorism-military
training in countries like Syria or Afghanistan to actively participate in deradicalization program. They
know how the terrorists work and who are still active in the terrorism network. The government can
utilize their knowledge to decide the next policy to counter the terrorist. Due to their experience in the
world of terrorism, the government also can encourage them to speak up to people with extreme
ideology to try to bring them back to the right way.

Lastly, we will face greater challenges in countering terrorism in the future, since it has started to poison
the young generations via their parents. Yet, having extreme ideology is not an overnight process for a
human, it needs a long exposure. So, if the government, supported by all of the people, consistently
continuing the program that has been implemented, added by doing the right way by executing
preventing program, social intervention, and involving former militant to support deradicalization, we
do believe that we will be able to cope with this.