The Jakarta Post, June 05, 2002
Lee blasted as 'paranoid' over remarks on hard-liners
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Muslim scholars here blasted as paranoid on Tuesday Singapore's Senior Minister
Lee Kuan Yew for his remarks that Muslim hard-liners were plotting to overthrow
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's nationalist administration to turn the country into
an Islamic state.
"It's nonsense. He (Lee) is either paranoid or wants to please the United States in its
international campaign against terrorism," said Solahuddin Wahid, a deputy chairman
of the nation's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
Dismissing Lee's statement as unsubstantiated, Solahuddin, who is the brother of
former president Abdurrahman Wahid, urged the government to "let it (statement)
evaporate".
Another Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla said: "Lew Kuan Yew is preoccupied by
problems with Islam, which appear like a monster in his mind.
"It is similar to the psychological condition during (former dictator Soeharto's) New
Order period in our country, in which Islam is something dreadful," he added.
In the opening speech of an Asian security conference in Singapore on Friday, Lee
said militant Muslims were plotting to topple the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Singapore to set up an Asian Islamic state.
He cited the growing threat of militant terrorist groups which, he said, have "hijacked
Islam as their driving force and have given it a virulent twist".
"Muslims who fought with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan, have
established indigenous al-Qaeda-like groups in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines
and ... Singapore to overthrow these governments and set up an Islamic state," Lee
said as quoted by AFP.
The immediate threat to the region came from terrorist Islamic groups, and the
stability of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and home to a nest of
militants, was crucial to the future of East Asia, he said.
Lee said Indonesia faced the most difficult challenge as Muslim leaders have already
begun vying for the support of militant groups ahead of 2004 elections.
He was apparently referring to recent moves by Vice President Hamzah Haz to visit
Ja'far Umar Thalib, the detained leader of the militant Laskar Jihad group, and another
hard-line leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was linked by Singapore and Malaysia to a
regional terrorist network.
Ulil, director of the Institute for Human Resources Studies and Development
(Lakpesdam), which is affiliated with the NU, said the Indonesian government should
"take it easy" in responding to Lee's remark.
"Lee's statement was aimed at raising awareness (against terrorism) in Southeast
Asia, but it could backfire against Singapore itself," Ulil said.
Ulil agreed that several groups of Muslim extremists were struggling to establish an
Islamic state in Indonesia, but "the question is whether they have the capability of
achieving that goal."
Another analyst Fachry Ali shared a similar view, saying Lee was "shocked" by the
fact that terrorist attacks were also haunting Singapore and dismissed his fear as
merely an attempt to protect Singapore's interests.
At least 13 members of the Ba'asyir-led Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group, based in Central
Java, had been detained in Singapore on charge of plotting to blow up U.S. targets
there. The JI has reportedly vowed to create a southeast Asian Islamic "super state".
Fachry said a "paranoid factor" prompted Lee to issue such a statement following a
terrorist threat to his small country, which "relies largely on international trade".
"That's why Singapore opposes the ideological movement by hard-liners in this world's
largest Muslim country... merely for the economic interests of Singapore," he said.
He said Lee wanted the United States to move swiftly to help fight against terrorism in
Indonesia and to put more pressure on Jakarta to deal firmly with militant groups.
Fachry said, however, that the government should initiate talks with Laskar Jihad and
other militant groups so as to make them "unalienated" in the country's political
mainstream.
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