Distrust hurts Indonesia-Singapore bilateral relations, says analyst

Distrust hurts Indonesia-Singapore bilateral relations, says analyst

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The statement by Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew on terrorism reflects
the city state's distrust of Indonesia and will hamper stable
bilateral relations between the two neighbors and cooperation
among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), a political analyst says.

Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) said on Thursday that "Indonesia and Singapore are
friends who will never be close to each other."

"We have different races and Singaporean leaders always harbor
distrust about the ability of Indonesian leaders to handle
regional problems," Bantarto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Singaporeans are mostly of ethnic Chinese background, while
Indonesians are mostly Malay in origin.

Lee, the city-state's founding father and former prime
minister, said in a newspaper interview earlier that Singapore
remained vulnerable to terrorist attacks because regional
terrorist leaders were still roaming around free in Indonesia,
suggesting that Indonesian authorities have allowed the country
to become a safe haven for terrorists and done nothing to curb
the groups' activities.

The statement has irked Indonesia and prompted the government
to summon Singapore's ambassador to Indonesia to discuss Lee's
remarks.

Dozens of activists protested in front of the Singapore
Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday, demanding Lee retract his
statement.

Singapore defended Lee's statement on Thursday, saying that it
was well-known that Indonesian Muslim cleric Abubakar Ba'asyir,
identified by Singapore authorities as a leader of the extremist
Jemaah Islamiyah, was living in Solo, Central Java.

Indonesian police have already questioned Ba'asyir but did not
detain him for a lack of evidence linking him with terrorist
groups.

According to Bantarto, Lee's statement should encourage
Indonesia to be consistent in dealing with international
terrorism.

"Singapore was wrong to make such a statement that touched the
sense of Indonesia's sovereignty, but Indonesia should not be so
defensive and emotional in reacting to remarks," he said.

Separately, Vice President Hamzah Haz joined the chorus of
Indonesian officials on Thursday asking the Singaporean
government to clarify Lee's statement.

"They need to clarify it because such a statement has economic
impacts for our country, it will scare off investors," Hamzah
told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Hamzah played down speculation that Lee's statement would
worsen relations between the two countries.

The two neighbors have experienced rocky bilateral relations
since the downfall in 1998 of former president Soeharto, once
considered one of the most powerful men in Asia.

Former president B.J. Habibie once said that minority Malays
in that country were being discriminated against by their
government and dismissed the city state as a "tiny red dot" on
the map.

Former president Abdurrahman Wahid also accused Singapore of
taking economic advantage of Indonesia's crisis and threatened to
collude with Malaysia to deprive Singapore of a clean water
supply.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security
Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed disappointment on
Friday over Lee's remark, saying that the Singaporean senior
minister should have clarified any intelligence data regarding
international terrorism through existing channels with the
Indonesian side before making it public.

"Personally, I think he should not have made it public like
that. He should have used formal diplomatic channels, ... we also
have intelligence cooperation ... Because revealing it to the
public will only create new problems should the accusation be
baseless," Susilo told reporters at his office.

Susilo said that President Megawati Soekarnoputri was
considering the appropriate way to resolve the misunderstanding
through a diplomatic approach, "because the two countries have a
good relationship."