Indonesia’s top army officials will
skip the Singapore Airshow as tensions escalated between the two
nations after Indonesia stood by its decision to name a navy
ship after marines who bombed a building on the island in 1965.
Indonesia’s Deputy Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and
other senior military officials won’t attend the event in
Singapore this week, both countries said separately. Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told reporters in Jakarta yesterday the government
will stick to naming the ship the Usman-Harun.
The no-show by the Indonesian army underscores relations
between two neighbors that have been sprinkled with occasional
friction. In November, Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam met with his Indonesian counterpart following reports
the city-state helped countries including Australia spy on its
neighbor. In June, Yudhoyono apologized for forest fires that
led to haze in the city-state.
“I don’t expect the Indonesians to backtrack, and
Singapore is registering its disappointment in hopes it won’t
happen again,” said Eugene Tan, an associate law professor at
Singapore Management University and a non-elected member of the
city-state’s Parliament. “We may see a cooling off period in
bilateral ties, particularly with military relations, but I
don’t see relations heading into a deep freeze.”
Shanmugam contacted his Indonesian counterpart to
“register Singapore’s concerns over the naming of the navy ship
and the impact this would have on the feelings of Singaporeans,
especially the families of the victims,” according to a
statement from his ministry last week.
Texted Cancellation
Sisriadi, a spokesman for the Indonesian Defense Ministry,
said Sjamsoeddin and his Singapore counterpart were due to meet
for a “strategic dialogue” during the Singapore Airshow. That
meeting was canceled through a mobile-text message from
Singapore, which led to the decision to skip the event entirely,
he said yesterday.
“There might be some kind of disruption in terms of
security cooperation and military cooperation,” Indonesian
Deputy Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said in an
interview today at an event in Singapore. “But I think it’s
like our relationship with Australia. We have some problems with
Australia, but at the end our economic relationship is still
going strong — with Australia as well as Singapore.”
Australian Ties
Australia agreed in December to follow the steps demanded
by Indonesia to improve trust between the two neighbors after
spying allegations left ties at their lowest level in 14 years.
Indonesia had suspended cooperation on military exercises and
called for a joint code of conduct while seeking to review its
dependence on cattle imports from Australia, an indication the
dispute could affect trade ties.
In Singapore, the Indonesian Air Force’s Jupiter Aerobatic
Team will still perform at the airshow if a slot is provided,
according to Agus Barnas, a government spokesman.
Singapore’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Feb.
9 that the Indonesian leaders, including Sjamsoeddin, Army Chief
Moeldoko and chiefs of staff for the army and air force, “have
decided not to attend the Singapore Airshow.” Kenneth Liow, a
spokesman at the Singapore Defence Ministry, couldn’t be reached
for a comment in his office today.
Two Marines
Indonesia’s Moeldoko said Singapore should stop regarding
the two marines as terrorists as they were “stage actors,” the
Jakarta Post reported yesterday, citing the general.
The marines, Osman Hj Mohd Ali and Harun Said, were
convicted and executed in Singapore for the March 1965 bombing
of the MacDonald House building in the city’s downtown that
killed three people and injured 33, the Singapore Foreign
Affairs Ministry said in its statement.
The explosion took place during the Indonesian
confrontation, when Singapore was part of Malaysia, and
Indonesian President Sukarno targeted Malaysia as a “neo-colonialist puppet state,” according to information from the
Singapore National Library.
Singapore restored bilateral ties and considered the
chapter closed in 1973 when then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
visited the graves of the two marines and scattered flowers,
according to the ministry.
“I am disappointed with the Indonesian decision to name
their new warship after the two convicted ex-marines,” Chan Chun Sing, Singapore’s second minister for defense and former
army chief, said in a statement on Feb. 7. Indonesian leaders
shouldn’t “reopen old wounds and hurt this relationship so
carefully built up,” he said.
Fire Season
Singapore and Malaysia have been plagued for decades by
periodic smog caused by clouds of ash drifting from Sumatra,
with regular spats over responsibility. Indonesia said in July
it agreed to provide the governments of haze-hit neighbors with
maps of plantation concessions in fire-prone areas, though only
on condition that they’re not made public.
Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Ltd.
said the fire season on Indonesia’s Sumatra island may start
early, leading to possible prolonged periods of haze over
Southeast Asia this year.
The company recorded 55 fires near its plantations in the
first five weeks of the year, with dry weather forecast
throughout the heavily forested area, it said in a statement.
“Any time you have these disputes, the most important part
is that there is lots of communication back and forth,” Kirk Wagar, U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, said in an interview at the
airshow. “It’s safe to say that that is ongoing from what I
read in the papers today. The American point of view would
always be whether it’s here, Africa or Latin America, we want
our friends talking to each other.”
To contact the reporters on this story:
Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at
bmoestafa@bloomberg.net;
Tanya Angerer in Singapore at
tangerer@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Rosalind Mathieson at
rmathieson3@bloomberg.net
Indonesia Officials Skip Singapore Airshow as Tensions Rise
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