Got chemistry, can relate

Got chemistry, can relate

Personal chemistry is going to feature in relations that
Singapore conducts with its two main neighbors, Indonesia and
Malaysia. When all is said and done about treaties, memoranda of
understanding and complementing one another's economic strengths,
it is the easy, personable relationship the leaders enjoy that
would smooth out discord and disagreements which are bound to
crop up in competitive bilateral relations. The personal
friendship that Mr Lee Kuan Yew developed with President Soeharto
in his long years as prime minister was what brought harmony to
dealings between two unlikely neighbors.

Conversely, an inability to "click" will be a serious
impediment to ties in a region that is anything but homogeneous
in governing ideology, ethnic makeup and levels of progress,
besides contrasting world views. The power trajectory of the
three countries' new leaders did not intersect fully. Mr Lee
Hsien Loong and Abdullah Badawi of Malaysia had known each other
reasonably well before they ascended the premiership. Still, they
need to cultivate each other. But neither of them can be said to
be "thick" yet with Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, who traveled in a different orbit until quite
recently.

This is added reason why Prime Minister Lee should invest in
his personal relationship with Susilo. It had been noticed in
Jakarta -- with much appreciation -- that Mr Lee had attended the
President's inauguration last month. His official hello call in
Jakarta this week drew from his host warm words of friendship.
Indonesian leaders of Javanese cultural reflex set much store by
personal warmth and politesse. Naturally, frequent contact will
not mean much if the chemistry is not right. The three new
leaders are fairly equable in temperament. None seems given to
dominating the other. There is a good chance they can hit it off,
to the region's overall gain.

It is Singapore's lot, however, to have its leaders
stereotyped as business-like, impatient to see results. This is
no handicap, provided mutuality of interest is observed. On Mr
Lee's visit, the Indonesians raised matters such as an
extradition treaty and sand exports. Singapore has practical
concerns about economic cooperation and the region's response to
the terror threat. There are sensitivities on both sides. If
there is chemistry in the mix, no issue can seem forbidding.
-- The Straits Times, Singapore