Sydney, March 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Indonesia denied Wednesday, March 23, it has any plans to outlaw the Jemaah Islamiah (JI), dismissing earlier reports the controversial move was being considered.

“We know nothing about that. We have no plans,” Andi Mallarangeng, a spokesman of the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told Australian Associated Press (AAP) Wednesday.

A ban on JI was not on the government’s agenda, despite promises by the president to get tough on terrorism, he added.

Earlier this week, a top security official had said the Indonesian government will ban the group, a move that will make it easier for authorities to arrest and prosecute “militants” in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, AAP said.

Ansyaad Mbai, who heads the counter terrorism desk at Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, had said that although Yudhoyono was very concerned about the group, he had not acted amid fears that outlawing the group could trigger a backlash among what he called ‘Islamic conservatives’.

Despite lack of official statstics on JI followers in Indoensia, it is believed to be attracting large numbers, not only locally but through the whole of East and Southeast Asia.

A spokesman for Indonesia's top security minister also denied there are plans to ban the allegedly Al-Qaeda-linked network, blamed for a string of attacks including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings.

A senior western diplomat explained to AAP the inconsistency by saying Mbai was “outside the loop” on security affairs.

Yudhoyono has previously said the failure to ban JI did not hinder Indonesia’s determination to fight terrorism and prosecute militants.

The JI reportedly claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack on the luxury JW Marriott Hotel, part of a US chain, in 2003 that killed 12 people, and is accused of being behind a car bombing at the Australian Embassy last September which killed 11.

However, there has been no proof whatsoever that there is a group called JI and there are many people who refuse the acknowledge the group even exists.

If Yudhoyono wanted to outlaw the group, he would first need to prepare the ground with a massive public relations campaign, Terrorism expert Sidney Jones, who has supposedly revealed JI’s inner workings for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told AAP.

“He could do it,” she told AAP, saying he had succeeded pushing through recent unpopular fuel price hikes.

“It is doable, but there will be an inevitable counter-response from JI through linked groups like the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (Council of Islamic Holy Warriors), who would have their own spin about the government bowing to western pressure.”

Western nations, including Australia and the United States, want Indonesia to follow the lead of the United Nations and list JI as a terrorist group.

But the move could prove easier said than done, according to observers, who believe the JI enjoys huge support among Indosians.

Indonesian authorities have arrested more than 150 ‘militants’ in the last three years, but officials are reluctant to link them to JI.

Jones said there was enough evidence to prove JI posed a security threat, including the recent trial of the group’s alleged spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who was sentenced to 30 months in jail earlier this month for conspiracy in the Bali bombings.

“There is no doubt the police would like to question a number of people they have so far been unable to,” Jones told AAP.

“One of them might be Abu Bakar Bashir's son.”