CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICEJan. 14, 2016
Southeast Asia expert in Jakarta says location of attack is symbolic
Newswise — Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the capital of Indonesia on Thursday morning. The Islamic State has taken responsibility for the attacks that have left two civilians and five attackers dead. Tom Pepinsky, a Southeast Asia expert and associate professor of Government at Cornell University, was in Jakarta when the blasts hit and says the location of the attack is symbolically powerful.
Bio: www.government.arts.cornell.edu/faculty/pepinsky/Blog: www.tompepinsky.com/
Pepinsky says:
“The location is symbolically powerful. The incidents took place near Sarinah, on Jalan Thamrin in Central Jakarta. Sarinah area is Indonesia’s first international-style mall, fallen on harder times as of late but still understood among Jakartans as an early and powerful symbol of Indonesian prosperity.
“This is not like earlier terror attacks in Indonesia. ‘International terrorism’ style attacks in Indonesia have historically been designed to destroy. They were also variously tied to al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah. The Sarinah attacks appear to be operationally different: more individuals involved, and with guns and grenades rather than exclusively suicide bombings. It suggests they were preparing for a fight – not exactly like the Nairobi attacks, but perhaps closer.
“Most Indonesians I have spoken to – not a wide sample, but different from the population one finds on twitter – are using the term kacau to describe the events. Kacau means something like disorder, and is a constant theme in Indonesian thinking, a kind of existential anxiety about what could happen if ‘things got out of hand.’ Kacau is what they think the terrorists want, and that is what they fear the terrorists can create.”
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