RI asked to continue lead ASEAN role

RI asked to continue lead ASEAN role

By Kornelius Purba

SINGAPORE (JP): Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Brig. Gen.
Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged on Saturday that during his tenure
in office, former president Soeharto had played a key leadership
role in the progress made toward prosperity by members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

He also expressed his hope that Indonesia would continue to
play a leading role in the future.

The deputy prime minister, known to Singaporeans as B.G. Lee,
said Indonesia, as the region's largest country, had given its
smaller neighbors room to grow and prosper by having a "relaxed"
relationship with them.

He said he hoped Indonesia would be able to resume its full
role in ASEAN shortly after its economy stabilizes and begins to
recover over the next few years.

"We have always thought that if Indonesia is strong, united,
with economic development and with the approach to the region
which prevailed over the last 20 to 25 years under president
Soeharto ... then it will be possible for the region to prosper,"
he said in an interview with seven Indonesian journalists here.

ASEAN comprises of Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

He suggested that during the transitional period it might be
difficult for Indonesian leaders to give equal attention to the
region given the mounting domestic problems they are faced with.

Lee, strongly tipped to lead Singapore after Prime Minister
Goh Chok Tong decides to step aside, praised Indonesia's strategy
which puts regional resilience as a precondition for national
resilience.

Lee responded cautiously to a question about President B.J.
Habibie's progress since he replaced Soeharto in May. He pointed
out that Habibie was facing a huge task, not only on the economy
but also on law enforcement and public order.

Lee, the son of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, said the
strengthening of the rupiah was an indication that confidence in
the government was returning.

"President Habibie has a very difficult job as the country is
very large ... I am happy to see that the rupiah has been
stabilized, it is very difficult to predict which way the
exchange rate will go, particularly as the environment and market
are volatile," he said.

Many Singaporeans, politicians and ministers among them, were
surprised and a little taken aback when Habibie recently
described Singapore as a mere red dot compared to Indonesia.

But according to Lee, who is also in charge of the country's
de facto central bank, the description served as a useful
reminder of the city state's unavoidable problems.

"A little red dot is not an issue, (it's a) geographical fact
we are small, without resources (while) the population is small,
but we have to make a living," Lee noted.

He reiterated that his government should be very careful in
disbursing a US$5 billion trade finance guarantee pledged to
Indonesia, saying that public money should be managed in a
responsible manner.

He said the regional economic crisis had begun to affect his
country and acknowledged that his government would come under
strong public pressure if it failed to handle the situation
properly.

"This is a problem from outside of the country ... We are
working together and sharing sacrifices and burdens together and
therefore will be able to get out of the difficulties," Lee
noted.

Early on Saturday, an official from the Singapore Trade
Development Board (TDB) surprised the delegation of visiting
Indonesian journalists when she said that her government had
never included data on Indonesian-Singaporean trading activities
in its official statistical publications.

TDB director Tan Seok Lee asked journalists to address the
question directly to Lee, adding that it was a politically
sensitive matter.

Lee said the two governments, more on Indonesia's request, had
agreed many years ago that Singapore would not publicize this
data because Indonesia used a different method to calculate
official trade statistics.

"If we both publish figures there will be differences and
there will be misunderstanding," Lee noted.

Lee was reluctant to comment on his future as Goh's successor.

"You said that," he laughed when a journalist described him as
the country's future prime minister.