Soon after the dust settled from the 2002 Bali bombings western governments latched on to one of the "soft" ways in which they might combat the rise of terrorism in Indonesia.

If moderate Islamic groups in the world's largest Muslim nation could be engaged and empowered, then extremists might be defeated, they calculated. Stronger, more vocal, moderate groups meant less breathing space for radical ones. Add "hard" training and equipment for law enforcement and, within time, terrorism would be routed.