1. Winahyo -- Equality before the rich and the powerful
\n1 x 22 48 pt Bodoni<\/p>\n
Equality for rich and poor?<\/p>\n
Winahyo Soekanto
\nLawyer
\nConsumer Care Foundation (YPK)
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
2. Japan -- Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni an alarming signal
\n1 x 32 36pt Bodoni<\/p>\n
Japan still arrogant about history<\/p>\n
Xiao Feng
\nChina Daily
\nAsia News Network
\nBeijing<\/p>\n
3. Malay -- Malaysia's Berita Harian takes aim at Singapore
\n1 x 32 36pt Bodoni<\/p>\n
Malaysia's media takes aim at Singapore<\/p>\n
Brendan Pereira
\nThe Straits Times
\nAsia News Network
\nSingapore<\/p>\n
The grumbling goes on and on. Singapore is so hard to like. So
\ndifficult to understand. So fixated with the black and white of
\nan agreement. So afraid of competition. So calculative as a
\nfriend. So cocky. So much of an American vassal in an Asian
\nneighborhood.<\/p>\n
When Datuk Ahmad Rejal Arbee starts on Singapore, he can be
\nunstoppable.<\/p>\n
He carries with him much of the baggage of anger and suspicion
\nthat flowed from the era of Separation. It is overflowing after
\nmore than three decades.<\/p>\n
But he is a busy man. So the interview must end. He edits
\nMalaysia's Berita Harian, the Malay-language daily that has tried
\nsingle-handedly to keep the anti-Singapore sentiment alive over
\nthe past few months.<\/p>\n
While other newspapers here reported the tudung issue with
\nsome detachment, Berita Harian chose a more provocative stance --
\nusing a photograph of a young turbaned Sikh boy and a Muslim girl
\nwearing a headscarf on its front page to drive home its editorial
\nposition that Singapore was discriminating against Muslims.<\/p>\n
Before that issue died down, the newspaper broke the story on
\nthe land-reclamation project in the waters off Pulau Tekong.<\/p>\n
Now, it has dug into the archives to resurrect a non-story
\nover Pulau Pisang and stir the pot once again.<\/p>\n
The way Datuk Rejal sees it, it is payback time. \"For a long
\ntime, Singapore's press coverage on Malaysia has not been
\nflattering. The Malaysian press has been quite fair all along.<\/p>\n
\"But now, we are focusing on you and you are getting
\nuncomfortable,\" said the veteran journalist, who has headed
\nBernama, the national news agency, Berita Publishing and The Sun,
\nan English-language tabloid.<\/p>\n
Every story on Singapore his newspaper uses is calculated to
\nhave a nuisance value.<\/p>\n
Several people who have attended recent meetings with him say
\nthat the quiet and polite man gets worked up when bilateral
\nproblems with Singapore are discussed.<\/p>\n
Singapore-bashing does not boost circulation, say senior
\neditors of other newspapers. Berita Harian sells about 197,000
\ncopies a day and occupies second spot behind Utusan Malaysia in
\nsales and influence in the Malay community.<\/p>\n
But the newspaper counts the southern state of Johor as one of
\nits strongest bases and knows that anti-Singapore feelings
\nresonate among UMNO politicians as well as the average Johorean,
\nwho blames the higher cost of living on free-spending
\nSingaporeans.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in the newspaper's scheme of news coverage is also
\nthe national-service element.<\/p>\n
He said: \"We have always dealt with Singapore on the basis
\nthat we are closer than just neighbors. Because of that, we have
\nnot been so calculative in our dealings.<\/p>\n
\"But Singapore is different. Even when it offered help during
\nthe currency crisis, it came with strings attached.<\/p>\n
\"So, maybe, this is where Malaysia has been wrong all along.<\/p>\n
\"We should not think that this relationship is so special --
\nthat when we negotiate with Singapore on anything, it should not
\nbe on a chinchai basis. We should go by the book.\" Chinchai means
\n\"anything goes\" in Hokkien.<\/p>\n
His take on what constitutes a special relationship is one in
\nwhich compromise takes precedence over everything, including
\nagreements.<\/p>\n
As skewed as his observations are, it is by no means a
\nminority view here. Many politicians, senior journalists and even
\ncorporate leaders believe that there should not be a credit and
\ndebit ledger in Malaysia-Singapore ties.<\/p>\n
So when Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong offered a US$4-billion
\n(S$7.3-billion) loan-for-water arrangement to Malaysia, it was
\nperceived not as a hand in friendship but an extraction from a
\nweakened neighbor.<\/p>\n
Says an UMNO Supreme Council member: \"We did not need to take
\nthe money. But we have not forgotten.\"<\/p>\n
Since then, the effort to paint Singapore as a villain has
\nbeen continuous.<\/p>\n
Malaysian politicians accused the Singapore government of
\ntrying to hurt the Malaysian economy by not stopping financial
\ninstitutions in the Republic from offering higher interest rates
\nfor ringgit deposits.<\/p>\n
Despite repeated explanations by Singapore leaders on why it
\nwould never want to hurt an economy so intertwined with its own,
\nnationalism has continued to have a more powerful attraction than
\nreason.<\/p>\n
In such an environment, it is easy for those who flog
\nconspiracy theories to have an audience.<\/p>\n
One making the rounds in Kuala Lumpur is that Singapore is
\nworried about the economic competition posed by Malaysia and has
\nstarted to sabotage its northern neighbor.<\/p>\n
Referring to Taiwanese shipping line Evergreen's moving of its
\noperations to Johor's Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Datuk Rejal said:
\n\"If we do things to improve ourselves, Singapore should not view
\nus as trying to compete. Lee Kuan Yew should not go to Taiwan to
\npersuade Evergreen not to come to Pelepas.\"<\/p>\n
He did not offer any evidence to back his allegation about
\nLee's supposed trip to Taiwan, but that didn't stop him from
\ncontinuing his attack.<\/p>\n
He alleged that Singapore was trying to block large
\nmultinationals from pouring money into a multi-billion-ringgit
\npetrochemical complex in Kertih, being developed by national
\npetroleum company Petronas.<\/p>\n
\"Why shouldn't Malaysia develop its petrochemical industry?\"
\nhe asked. \"It is Singapore that does not have its own raw
\nmaterials. But we do.\"<\/p>\n
This perception of economic sabotage is the real reason behind
\nall the noise over the land-reclamation project.<\/p>\n
Remove the claims that the livelihood of fishermen was being
\naffected or environmental damage, and all that remains is this:
\nMalaysia believes that Singapore is trying to kill off the port
\nat Pasir Gudang.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence to back this suspicion. And there need
\nnot be. Why? Because opinion-makers in Malaysia are convinced
\nthat Singapore's idea of dealing with competition is to kill it.<\/p>\n
Datuk Rejal's reaction is typical. He said: \"I feel Singapore
\nis not open and not forthcoming.\"<\/p>\n
On the land-reclamation issue, he commented: \"Singapore should
\nhave informed Malaysia about the project. Or, at least, Singapore
\nshould have given us the environmental-assessment studies.\"<\/p>\n
This theme was taken up by his newspaper last Tuesday when it
\ncarried a Page One lead report headlined, Singapore did not
\nconduct EIA study on reclamation project.<\/p>\n
Like his assertions on bilateral matters, the report was thin
\non facts. Quoting a source, Berita Harian alleged that no
\nenvironment-assessment report was conducted by Singapore before
\nit embarked on reclaiming land.<\/p>\n
How did it come to this conclusion?<\/p>\n
Simple. Because the Singapore government had not given a copy
\nof the report to the Malaysian government. Therefore, none
\nexisted.<\/p>\n
The newspaper did not carry a single line of a comprehensive
\nexplanation of the reclamation project issued by the Singapore
\ngovernment recently.<\/p>\n
Datuk Rejal believes that the nature of bilateral ties has
\nreached a stage where \"we may not have the same cordiality as
\nbefore\".<\/p>\n
Why? Singapore, he noted, seemed to be going its own way,
\ncharting its future outside ASEAN and seeking free-trade
\nagreements with Japan, the United States and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
A few days after the interview, his newspaper implied that
\nSingapore was a \"fair-weather\" friend -- ready to stick with the
\nregional grouping when times were good, but eager to jump ship
\nwhen economic prospects were uncertain.<\/p>\n
In Kuala Lumpur, this perception is grounded in more
\nnationalistic terms. There is a feeling that the vacuum of
\nleadership in ASEAN following the fall of former Indonesian
\npresident Soeharto has paved the way for Malaysia to play a more
\ncentral role in the organization.<\/p>\n
But just as Malaysia was ready to fill that vacuum of
\nleadership, Singapore moved to reduce its dependence on ASEAN,
\nsaid a senior analyst with a Malaysian government-linked think
\ntank.<\/p>\n
He noted: \"There is a strong perception that Singapore is
\ndiluting the importance of ASEAN. I don't think there is any
\nsubstance to this view. But people seem to believe anything
\nnegative about Singapore.\"<\/p>",
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