On Indonesia-Singapore relationship

It is a fact that Singapore, a dot on the map of Southeast Asia, is bordered by the fourth-largest country in the world. But to characterize that dot as red, which Indonesian President B.J. Habibie did a while ago, or to label it a Chinese enclave, as his senior adviser Dr. Dewi Fortuna Anwar has done, amounts to political and racial commentaries that go beyond stating the geographically obvious. ...

They are unfortunate, unfair and indeed provocative. The legacy of three decades of close bilateral relations, and of happy co-existence as members of the ASEAN family, is eroded every time uncalled-for remarks such as these appear.

... Why, then, is Jakarta casting aspersions on Singapore? It could well be that the compulsions of Indonesian domestic politics created by its economic crisis are weighing heavily on its foreign policy choices. The city state, a neighbor as small as it is close, is witnessing the fallout from that process. However, as a sovereign and independent state, it is not going to bow to the unwarranted pressure that is being exerted on it.

-- The Straits Times