Singapore refutes statements attributed to SM Lee
Singapore refutes statements attributed to SM Lee
JAKARTA (JP): Singapore refuted on Wednesday several
contentious statements which President Abdurrahman Wahid
attributed to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
President Abdurrahman, while meeting with the Indonesian
community in Singapore on Saturday, launched into a tirade
against Singapore, in part accusing Lee of publicly suggesting he
would soon resign.
"Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew has not publicly criticized the
Indonesian elite. Nor has he said that the days of President
Abdurrahman Wahid's government are numbered," a spokesman for the
Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement
received here.
"SM Lee had no reason to say or suggest this to President
Abdurrahman Wahid," it said.
Singapore offered a low-key response to the scathing attacks
by Abdurrahman, who accused Singaporeans of taking advantage of
the Indonesian crisis and of looking down on the Malay people,
who make up the majority of the population in Indonesia and
Malaysia.
The President also suggested Indonesia and Malaysia join
forces to cut off Singapore's water supply.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab, while
playing down Abdurrahman's remarks, said on Monday they were
prompted by Singapore's failure to assist Indonesia on several
fronts, including stopping the smuggling of government-subsidized
fuel from Indonesia to Singapore, and the currency speculation
affecting the value of the Indonesian rupiah.
The statement from Singapore said the island-state had strict
laws on smuggling, but the Indonesian government failed to follow
up and provide evidence that fuel was being smuggled to
Singapore.
In regard to currency speculation, it said: "The Singapore
government does not engage in currency trading in the Indonesian
rupiah. The Monetary Authority of Singapore intervenes in foreign
exchange markets only to manage the exchange rate of the
Singapore dollar, and does so using only the U.S. dollar as the
intervention currency."