temasek's aggressive overseas asset acquisition doesn't seem to
help matters:
Defence treaty
'Can we hold exercise in Orchard Road?
Its clear now: internal Jakarta politics, not Singapore action,
killed it. Littlespeck comment.
Jun 16, 2007
Indonesias charge that Singapore is holding up ratification of
their Defence Cooperation is wearing thin.
Its Defence Minister had said the reason for the failure is
Singapores refusal to allow the Indonesian military to have a say
on frequency and scope of naval exercises.
The city government attributes it to Jakarta wanting to renegotiate
terms that were already agreed upon.
Now the reason is becoming clear. One by one, political parties are
turning down the agreement reached with Singapore, which will make
it hard for the government to get House of Representatives
ratification.
According to The Jakarta Post today, two moderate Muslim parties,
the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party
(PAN) have served notice of their rejection of the treaty.
They would not ratify the agreement, dubbing it a betrayal of the
1945 Constitution.
The opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction has
also hinted it will reject it.
Tied up with the extradition treaty, the defence cooperation pact
that allows Singaporean military to train in Indonesia, was signed
by both governments in Bali on April 29. However, it can take
effect only after being ratified by the parliaments of both
countries.
Its now apparent that internal political opposition has derailed
Jakartas foreign policy initiative.
Instead of talking about it, an embarrassed military put the blame
on Singapore.
It said the failure was caused by Singapores refusal to allow it a
say over the frequency and scope of naval exercises held on
Indonesian territory. This was quickly rejected by Singapore, which
said an agreement on all points had already been agreed to.
The Jakarta Post gave this account of the Indonesian parties
reactions.
Former PAN chairman Amien Rais, former chief of an infantry
division of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command Lt Gen (ret) Yogi
Supardi and former chief of staff of the Brawijaya Military Command
overseeing East Java Maj Gen (ret) Sutarto harshly criticised the
treaty, which they said would make Indonesia an enlarged territory
of the city-state's.
"To ensure mutual and balanced benefits, the treaty should allow
the Indonesian Military (TNI) to stage a city guerrilla exercise on
Orchard Road in the heart of Singapore," Amien said, adding that
Singapore is employing the politics of hegemony to occupy
Indonesia.
He used as an example Singapore's "occupation" of the Indonesian
banking and telecommunication industries and the "stolen" sand from
Riau Islands province used to enlarge Singapore's territory.
Yogi said that with the DCA giving Singapore ample space to conduct
military exercises in Indonesian territory, the city-state, which
from a geopolitical point of view is unlikely to launch a military
offensive on Indonesia, "is trying to establishing a defence pact
with (Indonesia) and a multilateral alliance".
Faisal Basri, an economic analyst from the University of Indonesia,
said Indonesia could not trade its defence system for fugitives
whose corrupted assets would not be automatically repatriated
here.
"Indonesia should unilaterally annul the two treaties and start
accelerating its military industry to modernise its military and
improve the country's bargaining position at the regional and
international levels," he said.
"The nation should encourage relevant institutions and strategic
industries such as the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, the Atomic
Development Agency and state-owned firms such as ammunition maker
PT Pindad, shipbuilder PT PAL, and aircraft maker PT Dirgantara
Indonesia to produce weaponry to modernise the military."
Abdillah Toha, a member of House Commission I for defence and
foreign affairs, said any moves by the House to press the
government to increase defence spending would prove useless because
US$11.1b of the 2007 state budget was already allocated for paying
a portion of the country's foreign debt.
"Singapore has allocated 30 percent, or $7b of its state budget for
defence, while Indonesia allocates only 5 percent, or $3.5b, for a
similar purpose," he said. (Jakarta Post)
In Singapore, current affairs commentator Gerald Giam, a former
foreign service staff, in a piece headlined Indonesia playing punk
with us again said (excerpts): -
Since the time negotiations commenced in October 2005, both sides
had ample opportunity to raise any matter of concern for
discussion, prior to the conclusion of the carefully balanced set
of agreements on 23 April 2007.
Indonesia did not raise these issues then. But after the
conclusion of the package, Indonesia asked for substantive changes
and new conditions to what had already been agreed upon in the DCA
and Ias (Implementing Arrangements), as reflected in Prof Juwono's
remarks.
Singapore's position is that the agreements are already settled,
and the terms cannot be changed casually or piecemeal, without
risking the whole package of ET and DCA unravelling.
Nevertheless, in the interests of good relations between the two
countries, Singapore had earlier conveyed to Indonesia our proposal
on how we can move forward on this issue, and we are waiting for
Indonesia's response to our proposal."