Singapore sting

President Abdurrahman Wahid may have his personal reasons for making such stinging attacks on Singapore at the weekend, but he could have put them less bluntly and more diplomatically to avoid undermining ties between the two countries. Instead, he may have done some irreparable damage to existing bilateral relations which have been built and nurtured for over three decades.

Some of his remarks, such as his suggestion that Indonesia gang up with Malaysia to punish Singapore by cutting its water supplies, were totally uncalled for. Others, like his accusation that Singapore "has underestimated the Malays" were in no wise sufficiently substantiated so as to be taken seriously. He may have been offended by the failure of the summit of ASEAN plus three (Japan, China and South Korea) to address the problems of developing countries, but that in itself was no excuse for him to hurl insults at Singapore, who, after all, was playing host to a meeting whose agenda was worked out by the participants, including Indonesia.

Going by the President's remarks which he made before the Indonesian community in Singapore on Saturday, he appeared to be most irritated by his encounter with Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew earlier in the week, and not by the summit. The President recalled how the elderly statesman had turned down his proposal to bring East Timor and Papua New Guinea into the ASEAN fold. But what really riled him the most was Lee's recent public remarks that he thought the President would soon resign.

Senior Minister Lee, whom Abdurrahman has named among his impressive board of international advisors, has somehow touched a sufficiently raw nerve for the President to launch such a crude tirade. This is an abrupt change from the way Abdurrahman has treated Singapore since the early days of his presidency.

President Abdurrahman made Singapore his first overseas stop shortly after his election to the presidency in October 1999. He has met Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew on several occasions. One would have thought that their relations would be warm and cordial by now so that every problem could be addressed one at a time by them.

Admittedly, Abdurrahman's tireless campaign to woo Singaporean investors to Indonesia has not paid dividends. The administration had assumed that once Singaporeans start investing in Indonesia, the rest of the world would follow. This is attaching too much hope and importance to the role that Singapore could play in his economic strategy, certainly more so than the Singaporeans could ever hope to deliver. Singapore was never counted as being among the largest sources of foreign investment in Indonesia.

With most investors, Singaporeans or anyone else for that matter, sitting on the sidelines waiting for the return of some semblance of stability in Indonesia, the President has come under attack at home. His claims that his extensive foreign trips were needed to bolster investor confidence have started to ring hollow and make him prey to criticisms. Undoubtedly, this lack of foreign investment, particularly from Singapore, influenced the President in making his scathing attacks at the weekend.

What is not clear is where the relationship between the two countries is headed after this episode. We would like to think that this was simply another one of the President's emotional outbursts, something which he is now famous for, and does not hail a new approach in the way Indonesia deals with Singapore.

Neither country can afford to let relations deteriorate. The experience of the last three decades has shown that the two countries have mutually profited from building harmonious relations. Precisely because of the warm and close ties which we have enjoyed, leaders of both countries, particularly President Wahid and Senior Minister Lee, must show greater sensitivity and exercise caution when commenting on the state of affairs of the other country.