In the aftermath of the Jakarta attack on 14 January, Dr Rohan Gunaratna points to what needs to be done to mitigate the presence of IS in the region

The attack in Jakarta on 14 January is the worst terrorist attack to hit Indonesia since the twin hotel bombings in Bali in 2009. With seven dead, five militants and two civilians, and a further 24 injured including five police officers as last reported by The Straits Times. The incident has shocked the region.

The question now is what course of action the region must take moving forward.

Dr Rohan Gunaratna of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) says that governments “should now cooperatively and individually respond to the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS).”

Positive steps towards Dr Gunaratna’s suggestions are being made. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted on his Facebook page yesterday that “We will give our full support to the Indonesian government to bring these perpetrators to justice.”

Looking at the region as a whole, Dr Gunaratna points to three distinct issues which both individual governments and South East Asia as a whole need to address before the situation becomes too difficult to contain.

“Firstly, any terrorist cells active in Malayisa need to be immediately criminalised and prosecuted,” Dr Gunaratna says. He points to the freedom that the IS terrorist network in Indonesia was afforded to pursue their propaganda campaign to recruit members to their cause. “They must not be allowed to do the same.”

Dr Gunaratna also mentions the threat that IS poses in the Philippines, where there are intentions to create a satellite state of the caliphate. “We know that there are plans to make the Sulu archipelago a state, so the Filipino government must deploy troops in the region. If they are allowed to create a state then it will be much harder to respond.”

What is the most important issue for Dr Gunaratna however is the need to clamp down on the online presence of the Islamic State and its allies. “Governments need to come together and begin to move against service providers for publishing extremist content on their sites.

“It has to become an offence to publish such material online, and service providers need to be charged and prosecuted as such.”

Dr Gunaratna believes that even if content providers are not directly responsible for extremist content being posted on their site, they should still be held accountable. “You need to be diligent about what is being presented on your site. Just like companies are careful to make sure pornography is not posted, the same should be done for any extremist propaganda.” He believes that these offences should even apply to Internet giants such as Twitter and Facebook.