New President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo faces challenges on several fronts, but few are more pressing than how to stem the country's surge of domestic support for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) suggested in its report, "The Evolution of ISIS in Indonesia", that the new government follow through on former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's strategy to strengthen the capacity of immigration services to monitor movements of ISIS supporters.

The former Indonesian leader called for increased co-ordination with Densus 88 and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) in providing watch lists for officials at ferry terminals and airports, as well as better information-sharing with regional governments, especially Malaysia.

"Any bureaucratic obstacles to that sharing should be reviewed," the report said.

It also suggested keeping BNPT under police control rather than transferring it to the military .

"It is the counterterrorism police who have the institutional knowledge, the intelligence networks and the track record to manage the problem, although the high rate of deaths of suspected terrorists in police operations over the last two years also needs to be brought down," it said.

Intelligence and security analyst Wawan Purwanto said maintaining continuity in policies is necessary to curb the threats of terrorism and radicalism while also providing space to evaluate such policies for necessary improvements.

"We don't need to have a drastic change for the short and long terms," he told Khabar Southeast Asia. "People get radicalised through a long process, and it doesn't happen overnight."

Wawan added when combatting terrorism, it is just as important to gain and maintain public trust as to fill the voids of "head, heart, and stomach ".

"It would not be easy to maintain a balance in filling those three voids and this is what law enforcers or deradicalisation programme officers should bear in mind," he said.

IPAC warned of the "sophisticated use by ISIS of social media". Wawan added that the number of pro-ISIS social accounts far outnumbers ones that counter their narrative.

"This is dangerous because social media (propaganda) could really influence the minds of the younger generation," he said. "We have to acknowledge that social media is very influential."