temasek's aggressive overseas asset acquisition doesn't seem to help matters:
Defence treaty
'Can we hold exercise in Orchard Road?Â’
Its clear now: internal Jakarta politics, not Singapore action, killed it. Littlespeck comment.
Jun 16, 2007
IndonesiaÂ’s 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 SingaporeÂ’s 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.
ItÂ’s now apparent that internal political opposition has derailed JakartaÂ’s foreign policy initiative.
Instead of talking about it, an embarrassed military put the blame on Singapore.
It said the failure was caused by SingaporeÂ’s 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 partiesÂ’ 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."