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Singapore and Indonesia Have Different Goals
Suara Pembaruan Daily
Wednesday 2007-07-04 20:24:35
Indonesia and Singapore have different goals toward the Defence Cooperation Agreement between the two countries.
“Singapore is not serious about the extradition agreement. They prioritize the DCA. Meanwhile, Indonesia wants the extradition agreement to be finalized, and the DCA is a mere added package,” said Deputy Head of the Commission I of the DPR from Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) Sidharto Danusubroto in Jakarta, Wednesday (4/7).
According to Sidharto, the different goals were revealed by Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, two years ago, when he and the Head of Commission I Theo L. Sambuaga were invited for a luncheon in Singapore.
At that time, said Sidharto, Lee firmly expressed that they are more serious about the DCA than extradition. The reason is because Singapore obtains more advanced military technology but does not have an appropriate space for undertaking military exercises. To date, said Sidharto, Singapore has 8 squadrons of F0-16, dozens of ships, and tanks.
The statement is related to an earlier assertion by the Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono that criticizes Singapore over the DCA. The minister said that Singapore has been slowing the phase of implementation on the DCA, so that the extradition can be postponed as well.
“Singapore deliberately blocks the DCA by modifying the Bravo military exercise area that has not had the implementation agreement,” he said when giving a lecture at the National Defence Council (Lemhannas) as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Tuesday (3/7).
Jowono said that if the extradition agreement is implemented, then Singapore will lose their income. As a matter of fact, Singapore is one of the countries that live from ‘hot money’. “Singapore is like Switzerland that is managing illegal money from various countries, such as Africa, Latin America, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia,” said Juwono.
According to recent data by Merril Lynch, a financial research institute, there are 18,000 Indonesians that have business network of over 1 million Singaporean dollars. “Most of them are the non-indigenous people, and the rest are high level officials, who keep their money there. Not all are illegal, and not all of them are fugitives of the BLBI case. But we ask Singapore to admit that they are keeping this ‘hot money’ during 1997-2001,” said Juwono.
If the extradition agreement is implemented, then whether Singapore likes it or not, the country has indirectly admit that they have lived from the ‘hot money’ by giving sanctuary to those who commit economic crimes and subsequently manage their fund.
“Of course it will affect Singapore’s image as a clean country. Therefore, they are now looking for ways to cancel the extradition agreement, among others, by blocking the DCA because the two agreements cannot be implemented separately,” the Minister explains.
Original version in Bahasa Indonesia: Perjanjian Ekstradisi dan DCA, Tujuan RI-Singapura Berbeda
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Juwono Sudarsono's personal blog
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