The Role of Non-Governmental Organization in Preventing Violent Extremism in Indonesia: The Case of Wahid Foundation

Non-governmental organization holds a vibrant role of preventing violent extremism in the present climate than ever before. While the government focuses on tackling the issue at the macro level, NGOs tend to put more attention at the micro level that represents a more localized approach. Wahid Foundation is among the numerous NGOs that have concerns in violent extremism prevention. Considering this, the foundation has conducted several programs such as Desa Damai, which focuses on economic empowerment of the villagers and socialization, and Sekolah Damai, which focuses on creating a tolerant environment within the school to prevent extremism. The result of the research shows that efforts made by Wahid Foundation in preventing violent extremism is quite effective considering the programs serve its focus of preventing violent extremism with a specific target, namely local villages and schools, but at the some points the economic dimension as the effect of the program more condensed than constructing society as the early warning system to tackle radicalization. However, Wahid Foundation is facing two main problems. First, is the resistance from certain community towards their program. Second, the foundation is facing challenges of expanding their capability of reaching people outside Java, as violent extremism issues are not limited to Java alone. Several findings are also shown that the villages which became pilot project were not vulnerable to the extremist recruitment.