S'pore delivers aid to Indonesia despite tension

S'pore delivers aid to Indonesia despite tension

SINGAPORE (Agencies): Despite delivery of the first batch of Singapore's humanitarian aid for Indonesia, tensions between the Southeast Asian neighbors appear to be strained.

The tiny city-state promised S$12 million (US$7 million) in rice and medicine for its large neighbor earlier this month, as food shortages and staggering economic difficulties shake the world's fourth most populous nation.

According to The Straits Times, the first installment of Singapore aid arrived in Jakarta Monday. It will be followed by the visit of Singapore's Education Minister and Second Minister for Defense Teo Chee Hean starting today.

But tensions between the neighbors have risen lately, with the Indonesian government accusing its neighbor of not doing enough to help.

President B.J. Habibie indicated his displeasure with Singapore in an interview published yesterday by the Asian Wall Street Journal.

"You see, a friend in need is a friend indeed," he said. "I don't have that feeling from Singapore."

"I have that feeling from the U.S., from Japan, Australia, mainland China, from Malaysia, from Europe, Germany. But I don't have that feeling (from Singapore).

"They (Singapore) are pro-active in the negative direction, and that, I feel so sorry for."

Teo will visit Jakarta for three days to meet Habibie and other senior officials, and will attend a ceremony marking the arrival of the humanitarian aid.

"Ties are not moving in the right direction," Tanri Abeng, state minister of state-owned enterprises in Habibie's new government, said in late June.

He was referring to the lack of progress on Singapore's proposed trade finance plan for Indonesia, which was mooted last year but has yet to materialize. The $3 billion program would commit the Singapore government to guarantee payments of key imports into the country.

But Habibie's special envoy, Iman Taufik, was quoted as telling a news conference in Singapore Monday that the project was stalled because Indonesia was having difficulty meeting some of the conditions. He did not specify what they were.

Besides the proposed trade financing scheme, Singapore committed $ 5 billion to the massive $43 billion Indonesian rescue package orchestrated by the International Monetary Fund.

Habibie is irked by more than things said before he became vice president, according to the Journal. When he took office on May 21, he says, he received congratulations from a host of other nations that day or the next.

Singapore, he said, didn't send theirs until "almost June, very late." (In a letter dated May 25, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong offered his "warmest congratulations" to Habibie and "sincere good wishes that under your leadership, Indonesia will restore social and political stability, and start on the path of reform and recovery.")

After complaining about the timing of the Singapore note, Habibie hastened to add: "By the way, I have a lot of Singaporean friends. The Singaporean people are hard-working people, OK, and real good friends."

Gesturing across the wood-paneled office, he pointed to a relief map of Indonesia and the surrounding region mounted on the far wall. "It's OK with me, but there are 211 million people (in Indonesia)," he says. "Look at that map. All the green (area) is Indonesia. And that red dot is Singapore. Look at that."