My Jakarta: SFCG Indonesia’s Agus Nahrowi Talks Terrorism

SFCG Indonesia's Senior Program Officer Agus Nahrowi

By Zack Peterson

From the Jakarta Globe

My Jakarta: Agus Nahrowi, Prison Radicalization Reduction and Counterterrorism Official

Agus Nahrowi wakes up, gets dressed and goes to work just like everybody else. Except his workplace is within the country’s jail system, and when he sits down to write a report, odds are it is on one of the most dangerous terrorists in Indonesia.
Here, Agus, the senior program officer at an international NGO that works to transform the way the world deals with conflict, talks about the recent arrest of terrorist suspect Abdullah Sonata, pesantrens and the fear of terrorism in Jakarta.

Can you sum up your job for me?

I’m the senior program officer at Search for Common Ground Indonesia. I’m responsible for a program that attempts to reduce radicalization within Indonesian prisons.

Under this program, we conduct conflict management training [CMT] in eight prisons across the country where convicted terrorists are being detained.

We also implement a media campaign that focuses on promoting pluralism, non-violence, peace, empowerment and positive choices.

Do you do a lot of counterterrorism work in Jakarta?

I think my most important counterterrorism work is that which I’ve carried out in prisons. We’ve had 15 known terrorists take part in CMT.

We teach them how to deal with conflict in a more constructive way. We also train them how to manage their emotions and anger, develop empathy and improve their negotiation, mediation and peace-building skills.

I hope through this training they learn something.

Read the rest of the interview here.