IN FOCUS: Jemaah Islamiyah’s vow to disband not the end of terror attack threats, radicalisation in Southeast Asia

JAKARTA/JOHOR: For weeks, security analysts and scholars in the region have been debating the significance of a particular video.

In the three- minute video taken on Jun 30, 16 senior members of Southeast Asia’s most notorious terrorism network, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), announced the group’s dissolution and pledged their allegiance to the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

A video of the announcement was subsequently uploaded on the YouTube account of hardline Islamic website Arrahmah on Jul 3.

In the video, the senior leaders said they “are ready to abide by the law that applies in the Unitary Republic of Indonesia” and guarantee that the curriculum and teaching materials found in schools affiliated to JI “will be free from the attitude of extremism”.

It intensified the spotlight on JI that had begun after an earlier incident at a police station in Johor’s Ulu Tiram which resulted in the death of two policemen as well as the suspected attacker. 

It was initially thought to be linked to JI with earlier reports suggesting that the attacker — who was killed — had been a member of the terror group.

However, Malaysian authorities later said the attacker acted as a lone wolf and did not have plans to threaten the wider public. 

Still, five family members of the alleged attacker were arrested and charged in court . The patriarch of the family particularly, was charged among others for inciting terrorism by promoting the ideology of violence associated with the Islamic State (ISIS). 

The 62-year-old man was reported to have propagated ISIS teachings among his family members – including the alleged attacker – over a period of a number of years. 

And separately in end-June, Malaysian police nabbed eight people for alleged