Framing of Uighurs as terrorist threat for Indonesia

Patrik K. Meyer
The Jakarta Post 22 December 2016

Securitization is a process that most people are unfamiliar with, despite most governments
using it extensively, rightfully or not, to convince their populations that their country is facing
some sort of major security threat that needs to be addressed using exceptional measures.
In academia, securitization is defined as a discursive process that takes politics beyond the
established rules of the [political] game [] and argues that emergency measures are needed. In
other words, securitization can be implemented by actors with authority (mostly governments)
by using different media outlets to gradually transform environmental, economic, religious
social, cultural and health issues into security threats. And once this transformative process has
been successfully completed, i.e. audiences have accepted the governments arguments, the
authorities can legitimately implement exceptional measures to deal with these threats.
Examples of successful securitizations are the cases of the American government convincing its
people that Afghanistan and Iraq represented existential threats to the United States to then
legitimately invade those countries. And this despite these invasions contravening domestic and
international laws. A more constructive use of securitization are the global warming and HIV
awareness campaigns that resulted in numerous people realizing that they represented global
security threats and that exceptional measures were needed to address them.
Similarly, Beijing has successfully used the securitization strategy to gradually convince most
Chinese that the Uighurs, a predominately Muslim Chinese ethnic group, represent a domestic
and international security threats. This has allowed the Chinese government to legitimately
restrict numerous of the constitutionally protected religious and cultural rights of the Uighurs.
While such restrictions undeniably go against the Chinese constitution and laws, which robustly
protect ethnic minorities cultural and religious rights, the Chinese population considers these
harsh restrictions legitimate because they help protect the homeland from an alleged national
security threat.
Numerous Muslim communities around the world feel deeply angered by these restrictions that
result in the Uighurs being unable to fulfill basic Islamic duties such as praying, studying Quran
and fasting. Indonesias massive Muslim population is no exception in this outcry against Beijing
s religious restrictions imposed on the Uighurs, which is reflected in the numerous news
criticizing Chinas religious policies, such as: Chinese government should allow Uighur
Muslims to fast: Indonesian Ulema.
Most of Indonesias over 220 million Muslims are very sensitive about their Uighur brethren
having their religious rights harshly repressed by the Chinese communist leaders. Even the
China-friendly Indonesian government is unwilling to fully cooperate with Beijing when it
comes to the rights and safety of the Uighurs.

This reticence was shown when the Indonesian government turned down Beijings request to
repatriate a group of Uighurs that an Indonesian curt had sentenced to six years in prison for
terrorism in Indonesia. A high-ranking security official explained that Indonesia refused to
hand over its Chinese detainees because giving Uighurs back to China is the same as killing
them. Most probably, the Chinese government will execute them instantly.
This statement clearly reveals Indonesias concern over the mistreatment of Uighurs in China.
Therefore, China had to find a way to convince the Indonesian people and government that
Beijings repressive measures curtailing Uighurs rights were legitimate and that the Uighurs did
not deserve Indonesias empathy.
To legitimize in the eyes of the Indonesian people the harsh restriction imposed on the Uighurs
religious and cultural rights, the Chinese government has been framing the Uighur people in
general as a terrorist threat for Indonesia. For instance, under the headlines Southeast Asian
Terrorism: Rise of the Uighur Factor and Is There a Uighur Terrorist Buildup Taking Place in
Southeast Asia? Uighurs are broadly accused of networking with Indonesian terrorist groups
and partaking in terrorism activities.
To reinforce the idea that Uighurs are national security threat for Indonesia, China explicitly
accuses them of being violent militants: After shootout, China says Uighur militants a threat to
Indonesia. None of these articles distinguishes between the alleged handful of Uighur
extremists and the Uighur community as a whole.
The Indonesian government seems to have been persuaded by Chinas sweeping claims accusing
Uighurs of being terrorists. Numerous headlines, such as The Jakarta Posts Uighur militants
infiltrating Indonesia and The Stars Indonesia concerned with ease of entry by Uighur,
reinforce Chinas Uighur threat discourse without questioning it at any point.
A steady flow of discriminatory articles such as Indonesia turns to China as ethnic Uighurs join
would be jihadist, Uighurs look to Indonesia for terror guidance, and 4 ISIS suspects
arrested by Indonesia are Uighurs from China: Police further construct and consolidate in the
Indonesian peoples minds an unfunded fear from Uighurs.
This framing of Uighurs as a whole as a terrorist threat for Indonesia is based on questionable
and little evidence, and, most importantly, done without discerning between a handful of alleged
Uighur extremists and the over 10 million Uighurs that make up this Chinese Muslim ethnic
group. Beijings discourse does not provide any neutral or positive statements about the Uighurs,
giving the impression to the Indonesian people that all the Uighurs represent an international
security threat that needs to be fought as part of the global war on Islamic terrorism.
Ultimately, Beijing is using securitization as a smearing strategy to frame the Uighurs in general
as dangerous extremists in the hope that their Indonesian brethren will be desensitized about the
harsh and illegal cultural and religious repression that they are suffering in China.
This deceptive strategy might have been successful in partially muting the complaints from the
Indonesians in the short term. Nevertheless, it would be a much more sustainable and

constructive strategy for Beijing to defuse their tensions with the Uighurs by granting them the
religious and cultural rights enshrined in the Chinese Constitution.
***
The writer, a New America Security fellow and PhD in politics and international studies at the
University of Cambridge, is a visiting professor at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta.