"We report the progress of several laws, in particular, the revision of the Terrorism Law," Laoly said after a meeting with Widodo here on Monday.
The minister said that there should be a mutual understanding between the government and the House of Representatives to complete the revision of the Terrorism Law.
"The mutual understanding must be in relation to definitions. As a result, the Terrorism Law can have a good quality," the minister remarked.
The House of Representatives urged the government to strengthen the de-radicalization program in the Terrorism Law and to clarify the handling of victims.
The minister expected that the Terrorism Bill could be completed soon, as part of the efforts to anticipate the emergence of new terror acts.
Indonesia would need a new law to act against foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) and hate speech related to terrorism, an official of the National Agency for Combating Terrorism (BNPT) earlier said.
"We cannot yet punish FTF, because there is no law on this," BNPT deputy head of enforcement Inspector General Arief Dharmawan said.
He added that the government was still working on revising law 15/2003 on a crackdown on terrorism.
"But we do not know when it will be finished. I hope the revision could be completed soon and approved as a new law. We should not let another Thamrin bombing happen again, though we do not yet have laws to handle such terror acts," he remarked.
Issues regarding FTF should be tackled immediately, with the growing risk of terrorism, which has also become a global concern. It requires joint action among states and institutions, though without intervening each others interests, Arief emphasized.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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