RI-S'pore 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.