RI-Singapore relations suffer from misperception

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia and Singapore's bilateral ties suffer from public misperception about each other, while new challenges affecting the region have emerged that must be tackled together, foreign policy experts from both sides said on Friday.

Former Indonesian foreign affairs minister Ali Alatas said Indonesia and Singapore must stop stereotyping each other.

"In this period of progressive change, we should rebuild our relationship anew," Alatas said during a seminar on Indonesia and Singapore's relationship held by the Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS).

A number of Indonesian participants pointed out how some Indonesians felt they were being ruled by Singaporean money.

Chief editor of the weekly Tempo magazine Bambang Harymurti said some Indonesians viewed Singapore investors as "shopkeepers everyone hated yet at the same time also needed".

While Singaporeans, according to him, are apprehensive about Islam's spreading popularity in Indonesia. "Singapore thinks of Indonesia as a country with a pool of nice cities -- surrounded by Taliban."

There was also the misbelief among Singaporeans that Chinese businessmen faced corruption charges here because of their ethnic background -- a notion underpinned by the 1998 May riots in which Chinese were targeted.

Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), Simon Tay said Singapore often misread the changes happening in Indonesia.

When Soeharto fell, he said, the prognosis had been that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would take over the government.

But what followed was a relative clean and peaceful general election which few Singaporeans believed was possible.

Indonesia experimenting with decentralization, and the rise of Islam were further shifts that took Singapore aback. "The rules are changing in Indonesia and Singapore must adapt," Tay said.

Much of these changes occurred with the rise of Indonesia's reforms movement in 1998. It ended three decades of authoritarian rule under president Soeharto and unleashed widespread changes to Indonesia's economy, politics and social structure.

Tay said that Singapore too had changed as it was coping with China's growing economic influence. Several Singapore investors had turned to China as a new market, leaving behind Indonesia.

These changes put to the test Indonesia and Singapore's ties, the main architects of which were Soeharto and at that time prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

"Back then it was relatively easy with just two persons deciding what to do next," said Jusuf Wanandi from the CSIS Board of Trustees.

Now that conditions had changed both sides needed to start knowing each other again, he said.

Alatas said that while both countries needed to remove their misperceptions, they must also work on their old problems.

From the Indonesian side, those problems included Singapore's reluctance to sign an extradition agreement, its land reclamation activities using sand from Riau and charges that it was buying subsidized fuel smuggled out of Indonesia.

There is suspicion that Singapore banks were benefiting from billions of U.S. dollars in capital flight from Indonesia since the 1997 economic crisis.

With their money already there, several Chinese businessmen facing prosecution in Jakarta had moved to Singapore, claiming they sought medical treatment.

Analysts have said without an extradition deal, Singapore would unlikely shake off its reputation as a safe heaven for corruption suspects. But if this meant loosing the money Indonesian stashed in Singapore banks, the incentive to sign the agreement was minimal, they said.

According to Alatas, Indonesia has tried to get Singapore to sign an extradition agreement for more than 15 years. "It's about time we get this issue behind us," he said.

But Singapore parliament member Irene Ng said old problems should not eclipse the new challenges facing both countries.

She said China's rising influence and the global terrorism threat were the real challenges demanding attention now.

Alatas suggested the two countries discuss a common policy platform to address these issues.

"Different backgrounds produce different views that could put us on a collision course, and we should not be on a collision course," he said.