RI-Singapore ties growing stronger despite hiccups

RI-Singapore ties growing stronger despite hiccups

Adianto P Simamora
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Despite the changes in leadership in Indonesia and its tiny
neighbor Singapore, relations between both countries have
remained good and cordial in 2005.

The days have gone when two consecutive Indonesian presidents,
B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid, launched verbal onslaughts on
the city-state for the latter's non-cooperation on certain
matters.

Singapore -- a prosperous regional economic hub -- is no
longer considered as a tiny neighbor, but as a big trading
partner with bilateral trade reaching US$12 billion last year.

The presence of Singapore businesses and investment in key
sectors like banking, telecommunications, automotive and oil and
gas has created new milestones in relations.

Moreover, Singapore's generous and rapid response to the
tsunami tragedy in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra
provinces earned a special place in the hearts and minds of
Indonesians.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a son of
Singapore's founding father and former prime minister Lee Kuan
Yew, realized the strategic and economic importance of Indonesia
and provided new direction to his country's foreign policy toward
Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia.

Lee attended Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's inauguration ceremony
in Jakarta, while Susilo's first state visit was to Singapore in
February 2005. Both Susilo and Lee discussed various bilateral
issues but the main focus was on the much waited extradition
treaty, something that has been a thorny issue in bilateral
relations for more than a decade.

Indonesia wants an extradition treaty with Singapore as part
of its crusade against corruption. For many years, corrupt
businesspeople and officials who plundered billions of dollars of
national wealth slipped easily into the city-state and parked
their illegal wealth in Singaporean banks.

All these years, Singapore has been reluctant to sign an
extradition treaty on various pretexts, even though the treaty
actually strengthens cooperation between the two countries in
curbing corruption, terrorism and transnational crimes.

It was then president Megawati Soekarnoputri who formally
raised the extradition treaty during her meeting with then prime
minister Goh Chok Tong in July 2003 on Batam island in Indonesia.

Singapore's argument was that its legal system, which was
based on the British common law system, was incompatible with the
Indonesian legal system that was based on the continental
European legal system.

In fact, Indonesia -- a former Dutch colony -- has indeed
signed extradition treaties with several former British colonies
including Australia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It also has similar
treaties with China, the Philippines and Thailand.

But finally, Singapore agreed in principle to negotiate with
Indonesia regarding an extradition treaty.

Since then, the two countries' negotiation teams have held six
rounds of talks to hammer out differences over the planned
treaty. So far, at least 10 articles of the planned treaty have
been agreed.

Even 10 months after Susilo visited Singapore, despite some
progress the treaty has not yet been signed. Indonesia is losing
patience as Singapore is taking so long to sign the treaty.

Many believe that even if both countries sign the treaty,
corruption will not disappear because it has become a part of the
culture over many decades.

Despite this hiccup, relations on other fronts have been
growing by leaps and bounds.

Singapore's humanitarian aid to Indonesia's tsunami victims
and their speedy response to the tragedy, which killed more than
126,000 people, won kudos from Indonesians.

Singaporean troops were the first foreign troops to reach
Meulaboh town, which was completely devastated by the disaster
and cut off from the outside world, and provided emergency relief
to the victims.

Claimed to be the biggest military operation ever outside
Singapore, the city state sent among others three of its warships
RSS Endurance, RSS Persistence and RSS Endeavor, with hundreds of
personnel, including medical teams and members of Singapore Red
Cross and non-governmental organizations. It also allowed foreign
aircraft bringing humanitarian aid to land at its airport before
flying on to Aceh province.

On the security front, there has also been an improvement in
cooperation between Indonesia and Singapore.

In July this year, both countries along with Malaysia started
coordinated naval patrols in the Malacca Strait to combat piracy
that threatens shipping.

Piracy has been rampant in the narrow but busy 960-kilometer-
long strait, which is used by about 50,000 ships a year carrying
a third of world trade.

The two countries -- who are the founding members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- have also
agreed to improve cooperation in combating terrorism. Just two
days after series of suicide bombs jolted two popular tourist
areas in Bali in October 2005, Lee held a second bilateral
meeting with Susilo in Jimbaran, Bali.

Regarding economic cooperation, Susilo and Lee have signed a
bilateral investment guarantee pact and an agreement on
cooperation in tourism and air services. Susilo is also hoping to
attract more investment from Singapore. The tiny but prosperous
neighbor is currently the fourth-largest foreign investor in
Indonesia.

Bilateral trade last year jumped to record $12.08 billion --
one fifth of Indonesia's total exports -- in 2004 from $9.55
billion (see table) in 2003.

Indonesia mainly exports office and data processing machine
parts and refined petroleum products to Singapore, and imports
petroleum products, electrical machinery and office and data
machines from there.

Indonesian tourists are the backbone of Singapore's thriving
tourism industry. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrant
workers, mainly house maids, work in Singapore.

Another development has been in people-to-people contact, with
the two communities setting up the Indonesia-Singapore Friendship
Association (ISFA) in April, representing a turning point in the
history of people between the two nations.

The organization, led by Abu Bakar Maidin, a noted Muslim
figure in Singapore, would focus on promoting the cultures of the
two countries to its young generation through student exchange
programs and job training.

Over the next year relations are poised to move to new
heights, and Singaporean leaders must take bold political
decisions to expedite the signing of the extradition treaty and
to settle issues like the demarcation of sea borders and ill-
treatment of Indonesian workers.