Singapore clarifies

Singapore clarifies

I refer to the article: Lee blasted as paranoid over remarks
on hard-liners, which was published in The Jakarta Post on June
5, 2002.

Your report portrayed Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and
Singapore as being paranoid about Islam. This is not correct. On
the contrary, in his speech at the IISS conference on May 31,
2002, Senior Minister Lee stated that nearly all Muslims, were
tolerant and easy to live with. Senior Minister Lee also
emphasized that "the war against terrorism is not a war against
Islam. The majority of Muslims have nothing to do with terrorism
of extremism."

Also he did not say that Indonesia is "a nest of Islamic
militants".

The Senior Minister did not accuse "hard-line Islamic groups"
in general of plotting to overthrow the governments in Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. He referred explicitly
to Southeast Asian militant groups started by those who fought
alongside and learned from the Taliban and al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan when they returned to their own countries.

The Jemaah Islamiah group arrested by Singapore's security
authorities was one such group. Others included the Abu Sayaff
(ASY) in southern Philippines and the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia
(KMM) in Malaysia. Operatives of these groups detained in
Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have admitted that their
aim was to overthrow all these governments and set up an Islamic
state.

Other governments in the region are also concerned over the
threat posed by these indigenous al-Qaeda-like terrorist groups.
Media Indonesia on June 6 reported that Malaysian Deputy Prime
Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, confirmed there were militant
Islamic groups seeking to depose their governments by
"extraconstitutional" means. "That is why the Malaysian
government has taken firm action as preventive measures", he said
to the chief editors of the print media and television stations
in Jakarta as reported in Media Indonesia.

WILLIAM TAN

First Secretary

Singaporean Embassy

Jakarta

Note: Paranoid was the term used by one of the observers we
quoted in the story. --Editor