Reconciliation body needs Lee Kuan Yew
Reconciliation body needs Lee Kuan Yew
JAKARTA (JP): Senior Asian statesman Lee Kuan Yew has been
asked to be an international advisor to the National Commission
for Truth Seeking and Reconciliation to be set up by leading
Muslim figure Abdurrahman Wahid.
Abdurrahman conveyed the request to Singapore envoy Edward Lee
who visited him at his South Jakarta residence on Wednesday to
symbolically hand over a contribution of rice and medicine from
his government.
Abdurrahman, known as Gus Dur, is one of a number of figures
attempting to initiate a national dialog in a bid to cool down
the political climate.
While there has been no further news of a government plan to
establish a national reconciliation team, Abdurrahman has said he
was setting up the aforementioned commission.
He said he was inviting national and international figures to
be members of the commission and sit on its panel of
international advisors.
"For this purpose I ask for the support of the Singaporean
government by asking (former prime minister and) Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew to represent ASEAN as an international adviser,"
Abdurrahman said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations.
The aid presented from Singapore on Wednesday was the
country's third package of humanitarian aid to Indonesia which
its government chose to channel through the largest Muslim
organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which Abdurrahman chairs.
The aid was part of the S$12 million (US$7.2 million) worth of
rice and supplies of medicine pledged by the Singapore government
on July 6 last year.
Ambassador Lee said: "NU has a wide network throughout the
country and it is the right medium to help Singapore channel the
aid."
The aid comprised 1,000 metric tons of rice and medicine for
people in East and Central Java. The aid is expected to arrive on
Thursday.
Lee is also scheduled on Friday to hand over more aid to
Muhammadiyah, the country's second largest Muslim organization,
at its headquarters here.
The first phase of Singapore's donation -- 10,000 metric tons
of rice and medicine -- was handed over for distribution on Aug.
6 last year to Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto.
The second phase of 4,000 tons of rice and medicines was
handed over on Oct. 16 to Riau Governor Soeripto.
Transparency
Separately on Wednesday the chairman of the Muslim Community
Party (PUI) Deliar Noer said that "political activists" should
not be put in charge of distributing the trillions of rupiah in
foreign aid intended for small businesses and the poor, to avoid
possible misuse of these funds to buy votes.
"We urge the government to be transparent in the distribution
of credits to small businesses... regarding those who obtain the
credits, on what grounds, and so on, so that the funds won't
disappear midway," Deliar said.
Fears over abuse of the funds, which are mostly low interest
loans, for money politics was raised earlier by Erna Witoelar,
facilitator of a non-governmental organization entrusted to
distribute safety net funds from foreign donors channeled through
international organizations.
The remainder of the funds are managed by the government.
Erna's network, the Community Recovery Program, last month
announced the assignment of US$1.5 billion for several NGOs in
rural areas across the country.
In the newly announced 1999/2000 State Budget, the government
stated its plans to allocate a significant portion of the
development budget to foster small-sized and medium-sized
enterprises and cooperatives.
This includes Rp 629.21 billion ($84 million) for small-scale
industries, Rp 4.39 trillion for the agricultural sector, Rp
224.03 billion for forestry, Rp 175.45 billion for small traders
and Rp 1.33 trillion in capital and technical assistance for
cooperatives and small businesses.
"It must be ensured that those receiving the assistance are in
fact small-scale businesspeople... it must also be ensured that
they get proper training," Deliar told The Jakarta Post,
following a media conference on the subject. (edt/aan/01)