Takes two to tango

Takes two to tango

Abdillah Toha's article in The Jakarta Post, March 1, titled
Extradition talks and Singapore's lectures reflects an Indonesian
citizen's impatience regarding the signing of the extradition
treaty that has been discussed over the past three decades. In
fact, the majority of Indonesians, in my opinion, share his
views.

Since the first request for Singapore to sign an extradition
treaty in 1975 was submitted, there has been no progress so far,
even though the United Nations Convention Against Corruption was
signed two years ago, and the ASEAN Agreement on Reciprocal Legal
Aid against Criminal Acts was approved last November. It was only
after the Indonesian House of Representatives put pressure on the
government to set the end of 2005 as the deadline for signing the
treaty that the Singaporean government agreed to resume talks on
it.

Indonesians -- who have not had an "explosive-style" leader
like first president Sukarno for the past three decades or so --
should learn from former Malaysian prime minister, Dr. Mahathir
Mohammad, and the current Thai prime minister, Thaksin Sinawatra,
about how to talk tough when it comes to critical issues.

As we are all aware, Indonesia is currently the fifth most
corrupt country in the world. Being a good neighbor, the
Singaporean authorities should have, in the first place, known
about and helped Indonesia in its fight against corruption by,
for instance, preventing corruptors from hiding, and their graft
money from being hidden, in their country.

Abdillah Toha's remarks have been "categorically" corrected by
the Singaporean Embassy here (the Post, March 5), and they even
asked for proof as to the amount of illicit money stashed in
their country's banks. Well, according to reports there is
presently about US$70 billion in Indonesian corruptors' money
deposited in Singapore's banks (Kompas, Dec. 17).

From the business perspective, such huge deposits obviously
have the potential to make the host country, which is already
rich, even richer. But from the perspective of neighborliness, it
means they are enjoying themselves while we are suffering.

The House pressure on the government has encouraged the
Singaporeans to start talks on the treaty again, even though the
latest round of talks does not offer too much hope as a result of
Singapore's tactic of buying time. In order to add to the
pressure and Indonesia's bargaining power during the next round
of talks, it is worth considering the suggestion by former Garuda
Indonesia president M. Suparno: that Indonesia revoke the right
of Singapore Airlines to traverse Indonesian airspace, given that
they earn $900 million in profit from their flights to Australia
alone (Business Indonesia, March 1).

M. RUSDI, Jakarta