Why always Singapore?

Why always Singapore?

When Singapore came to support Indonesia in its monetary
crisis, someone pointed out that its pledged US$5 billion was
conditional. This may mislead others to think that support from
Japan and other countries came without strings attached.

When someone said the attack on the rupiah came from
outsiders, straight away people pointed at Singapore and forgot
about other financial centers, such as Hong Kong and Kuala
Lumpur. Fund managers can be European, Singaporean, Malaysian or
even Indonesian.

Recently SCTV reported that Indonesian maids in Singapore were
ill-treated, but it made no mention of how many out of the about
7,000 maids faced problems. What about those who are happy
working there?

A comment of Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew prompted
protests in front of the Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta. This
makes me feel that there are some Indonesians who become very
emotional when looking at a problem. Mr. Lee made his statement
based on records and data analysis. If Indonesia is able to show
facts and figures proving him wrong, it would be more convincing.
I hope that some influential figure in Indonesia will be able to
maintain the good friendship between Indonesia and Singapore.

ANDREA NG

Bekasi, West Java