Govt urged to go all out for extradition treaty with S'pore

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Indonesian legislators renewed their calls for the government to expedite efforts to establish a long-awaited extradition treaty with Singapore.

The appeal surfaced during a hearing between members of the House Commission I for defense, information, foreign and political affairs with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda on Thursday.

"We ask the minister of foreign affairs to make more serious efforts to solve problems with our neighboring countries, such as the extradition treaty with Singapore," the commission said.

The Indonesian authorities have requested Singapore, a tiny but prosperous city-state, to sign an extradition treaty as many Indonesian nationals accused of corruption have reportedly fled to Singapore to avoid trial in Indonesia. The treaty will enable the Singaporean government to extradite Indonesians accused of crimes committed in Indonesia.

Hassan said that Singapore had submitted a list of questions regarding the technicalities of Indonesian law both in December 2003 and August 2004.

Indonesia, said Hassan, had answered all the questions and submitted a note inviting the Singaporean authorities to hold bilateral consultations on the issues.

"But Singapore has yet to show its readiness to sit together (with Indonesian government) in a bilateral meeting to discuss the issue," he told the commission.

During the hearing, a number of commission members expressed their impatience and lashed out at Singapore for not cooperating with Indonesia to establish the treaty.

They warned that any further delays in talks would hamper the relations between the two countries.

"We, as the representatives of the Indonesian people, need to declare Singapore as an enemy of the country because they haven't shown the goodwill to sign the treaty with us," Mashadi of the Reform faction said.

Yasril Ananda Baharuddin of Golkar Party concurred.

"I agree with Mashadi, we have said earlier that if the Singaporean authorities still do not show goodwill by the end of the current government period, we will declare Singapore the enemy of our country," Yasril said.

During the last five years, Singapore has been emerging as an important player in the crisis-hit Indonesian economy. Now it has investments in the telecommunications, banking, health, property and automotive sectors. The increasing presence of Singapore in vital sectors of the Indonesian economy has caused concern among many Indonesians, including some House members.

But Hassan expressed optimism that the two countries could soon set up "a joint technical meeting" especially designed to discuss the extradition treaty preparation.

"This is not a difficult agreement, we have already set up such treaties with a number of countries, but we can't force Singapore to do that," he said.

Indonesia -- the largest nation in Southeast Asia -- has signed extradition treaties with Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.

Thursday's hearing was also intended to review and assess the foreign ministry's performance and its policies. Indonesia will hold the presidential election runoff next Monday, and the new president and vice president will be installed on Oct. 20.