The Singapore connection

The Singapore connection

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's working visit to Jakarta
earlier this month marks the beginning of an era of Indonesia's
reinvigorated bilateral relations with Singapore. To say that
Singapore, as a hub of modernity in Southeast Asia, is of the
utmost importance for the progress of the region and particularly
of Indonesia -- and that a stable and developing Indonesia is of
strategic importance to Singapore -- is to spell out a redundant
geopolitical reality.

That reality, after all, is why quite early on, at the beginning
of Gen. Soeharto's New Order administration in 1966, one of the
first moves he made was to terminate the so-called konfrontasi
(confrontation) policy toward Singapore and gradually repair the
damaged bilateral relations.

In practice, however, the geopolitical truism that both
countries need each other has been difficult to realize. All
sorts of psychological handicaps have stood in the way of
elevating relations between Singapore and Indonesia and, for that
matter, with other countries in the region. President B.J.
Habibie's emotional remark that Singapore was just "a red dot on
the map" was perhaps a fitting expression of what has long been
in the subconscious of many Indonesians.

Indeed, Singapore's astounding success in its modernization
efforts, which prompted Newsweek in a recent edition to refer to
the island state as the regional bank of Southeast Asia, also
raises a dilemma. On the one hand, sober-minded leaders in
Jakarta realize that given the swift-moving globalization
process, Singapore, with its modern and sophisticated financial
facilities and wide-ranging information network, could be helpful
in pushing development in Indonesia. This is especially true
since Indonesia has much to catch up with in the wake of the 1997
monetary crisis and the recent political upheavals triggered by
reformation efforts.

Be that as it may, it is no exaggeration to say that a new
historical era has dawned in this region with the emergence of
new leadership in Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It is in
this context that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's recent visit
to Jakarta cannot be viewed as an ordinary working visit by a
newly installed head of government to a neighboring country. The
buzzword here is "opportunity," in the sense that this new
historical stage opens up a host of opportunities that beg to be
seized -- without, of course, underestimating the difficulties
that remain.

It seems that Prime Minister Lee is seriously trying to erase
the long prevailing perception of Singapore as a country that is
intent merely on cultivating its self-interests. He has stated
that it is in Singapore's "fundamental interest that our
relations with Indonesia are good and that Indonesia is stable
and prosperous and thriving and at peace with the region".

The setting up of a joint cooperation council is apparently,
in this context, in the offing to take on existing opportunities
in the fields of trade, investment, civil air transport, science
and technology. As far as we remember, a similar joint commission
was set up as a result of a meeting between prime minister Goh
Chok Tong and president Megawati Soekarnoputri on the island of
Batam near the end of 2003. As far as we know, however, that
commission made little progress as neither side could agree on
formulating the terms of reference.

We hope that, this time, the common strategic outlook, as
displayed by both President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong, is also well-perceived by senior
officials on both sides, so that the proposed joint council can
indeed be functional. A binding and extensive plan of cooperation
between Indonesia and Singapore obviously cannot be realized in
one visit.

On the Indonesian side, many things have to be put in order to
maximize the benefits of cooperation with Singapore. On the
Singaporean side, the new leadership, as epitomized by Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong, needs to push the younger generation to
pay greater attention to the region, especially Indonesia as the
largest archipelagic state in the world. In the meantime, the
world is moving on. We who live in this region need to step up
the pace of our efforts so that we are not left too far behind.