Lee blasted as 'paranoid' over remarks on hard-liners

Lee blasted as 'paranoid' over remarks on hard-liners

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Muslim scholars here blasted as paranoid on Tuesday Singapore's
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for his remarks that Muslim hard-
liners were plotting to overthrow President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's nationalist administration to turn the country
into an Islamic state.

"It's nonsense. He (Lee) is either paranoid or wants to please
the United States in its international campaign against
terrorism," said Solahuddin Wahid, a deputy chairman of the
nation's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Dismissing Lee's statement as unsubstantiated, Solahuddin, who
is the brother of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, urged the
government to "let it (statement) evaporate".

Another Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla said: "Lew Kuan Yew
is preoccupied by problems with Islam, which appear like a
monster in his mind.

"It is similar to the psychological condition during (former
dictator Soeharto's) New Order period in our country, in which
Islam is something dreadful," he added.

In the opening speech of an Asian security conference in
Singapore on Friday, Lee said militant Muslims were plotting to
topple the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines
and Singapore to set up an Asian Islamic state.

He cited the growing threat of militant terrorist groups
which, he said, have "hijacked Islam as their driving force and
have given it a virulent twist".

"Muslims who fought with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in
Afghanistan, have established indigenous al-Qaeda-like groups in
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and ... Singapore to
overthrow these governments and set up an Islamic state," Lee
said as quoted by AFP.

The immediate threat to the region came from terrorist Islamic
groups, and the stability of Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim nation and home to a nest of militants, was crucial to the
future of East Asia, he said.

Lee said Indonesia faced the most difficult challenge as
Muslim leaders have already begun vying for the support of
militant groups ahead of 2004 elections.

He was apparently referring to recent moves by Vice President
Hamzah Haz to visit Ja'far Umar Thalib, the detained leader of
the militant Laskar Jihad group, and another hard-line leader Abu
Bakar Ba'asyir, who was linked by Singapore and Malaysia to a
regional terrorist network.

Ulil, director of the Institute for Human Resources Studies
and Development (Lakpesdam), which is affiliated with the NU,
said the Indonesian government should "take it easy" in
responding to Lee's remark.

"Lee's statement was aimed at raising awareness (against
terrorism) in Southeast Asia, but it could backfire against
Singapore itself," Ulil said.

Ulil agreed that several groups of Muslim extremists were
struggling to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia, but "the
question is whether they have the capability of achieving that
goal."

Another analyst Fachry Ali shared a similar view, saying Lee
was "shocked" by the fact that terrorist attacks were also
haunting Singapore and dismissed his fear as merely an attempt to
protect Singapore's interests.

At least 13 members of the Ba'asyir-led Jamaah Islamiyah (JI)
group, based in Central Java, had been detained in Singapore on
charge of plotting to blow up U.S. targets there. The JI has
reportedly vowed to create a southeast Asian Islamic "super
state".

Fachry said a "paranoid factor" prompted Lee to issue such a
statement following a terrorist threat to his small country,
which "relies largely on international trade".

"That's why Singapore opposes the ideological movement by
hard-liners in this world's largest Muslim country... merely for
the economic interests of Singapore," he said.

He said Lee wanted the United States to move swiftly to help
fight against terrorism in Indonesia and to put more pressure on
Jakarta to deal firmly with militant groups.

Fachry said, however, that the government should initiate
talks with Laskar Jihad and other militant groups so as to make
them "unalienated" in the country's political mainstream.