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