Asia Times (atimes.com), February 26, 2002
Lee Kuan Yew brings the pot to boil
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founder and so-called "elder statesman", has
handed Indonesia a cause on a plate. Seen by the Indonesians as Uncle Sam's voice
in the Asia-Pacific, Singapore has had a rocky relationship with its worrying neighbor
ever since konfrontasi, way back in the mid-'60s.
The enemy in those days were the region's widespread communist insurgents.
There seems little chance that the latest spat, caused by Lee's continued
authoritarianism approach to others as well as his own kind, will be resolved
diplomatically this time - the clarion call in the Indonesian House of Representatives
(DPR) is for war. Although not, of course, the threat of actual war that Lee faced when
former Indonesian president Sukarno had taken up a similar cause and threatened the
very existence of the new island state of Singapore.
Lee last week expressed concern about reported al-Qaeda cell operatives in
Southeast Asia being loose in Indonesia and endangering the security of Singapore.
He sounded off on Indonesia's failure to arrest the Jemaah Islamiah leader, Abu Bakar
Bashir, 74, a Muslim cleric, despite detailed intelligence implicating him in a recent
but foiled terrorist plot.
The Bush campaign to lead the civilized world into a black hole of defining, searching
out and punishing terrorists is a mission Singapore can relate to easily. Together with
neighboring Malaysia, its draconian laws and powers to arrest with few, if any,
restrictions, highlight why Singapore and Indonesia, though close geographically, are
in much more of a Kipling-like "East is East and West is West" category.
"In the Asian-Pacific region, we don't feel real unilateral," Admiral Dennis C Blair,
commander of US military forces in the Pacific, told experts at the National Defense
University in Washington on Sunday. Blair meant, of course, that Singapore and the
US are at one with the need to purge the world of anything that faintly smells of
terrorism.
Driven on by the angst of September 11, and the urgings from his father, US President
George W Bush started his war on terrorism in the obvious arenas, Afghanistan and
Pakistan, but ensured that Europe was covered by his partner in the earthbound "Star
Wars" scheme, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and quickly saw the immense
benefits of opening up Southeast Asia to a much greater US presence. Blair (the US
navy version) describes the need for an "unprecedented degree of international
cooperation" to win the war and probe the intricate networks that merge Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda network and the Far Eastern version of Mafia-organized criminals.
Lest anyone should doubt his earlier emotive "seam of lawlessness stretching from
Indonesia to Burma" (Myanmar), the paymaster in Washington shifted money and
support to the Asia-Pacific. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, once seen
as pro-Indonesia, was the first to say in public that Indonesia and the Philippines were
pockets of international terrorist activities.
Enter Singapore. Who else but Singapore to preach the gospel to its neighbors?
Foreign forces based in Singapore? Well, not really, George, that is against our laws,
but then again this is a war after all, and we all have to decide whether we are "for or
against" terrorism (read the US). And so Singapore, historically nervous if Indonesia
even belches, now has a US Navy base in Changi, the better to sleep peacefully at
night.
The military's top brass in Indonesia are also capable of a take-it-or-leave-it stance
when their public face is being called in to question. "We guarantee that the territory
of Indonesia is not used as a lair for a terrorist network," TNI commander Admiral
Widodo thundered last week. The military have wide experience in dealing with the
brand of terror that they see as threatening the stability of the country. But with very
limited resources, most of all money, it has great difficulty in cranking up the intensity
of their probes to a level that will satisfy Bush - or Lee for that matter.
It was left to military spokesman Rear Marshal Graito Usodo, before he was replaced
last week by Major General Sjafrie Sjamsuddin, to tone down the arrogance inherent
in his boss's words. Usodo explained that since September 11, Indonesia has been
exchanging intelligence with the countries next door but complained, "So far there is
no help and cooperation which is concrete." Sjamsuddin is unlikely to be so
accommodating to the need for sweet-talking with politicians from whatever country.
He was an intelligence officer in the army's Special Forces (Kopassus) with a direct
hand in some of the worst violations during the 1990s, around the time of ex-president
Suharto's fall from power. He spent many tours of duty in East Timor, and is known to
have actively supported the militias that caused so much damage and loss of life.
In spite of all this sharing of information, Singapore was the first to expose parts of the
Jemaah Islamiah network. In January, authorities there detained 13 terrorist suspects
said to be members of the organization that had its network in Indonesia and
Malaysia. A dozen of these were Singaporeans and the other a Malaysian.
Investigators claimed proof that there was a master plan afoot to bomb a US warship
at anchor in Singapore waters, as well as several foreign embassies in the city.
Indonesian Fathur Rahman Al-Ghozi, 30, alleged to be a main man in the Jamaah
Islamiyah set-up, told investigators he had regularly moved between Manila, Kuala
Lumpur and Singapore to plan terrorist attacks. Police in Manila arrested Ghozi on
January 15, on charges of storing one ton of TNT, 300 detonators, and 17 M-16 rifles
ready for another planned "big bang". He was also involved in the bombing of a railway
station in Metro Manila on December 30.
Al-Ghozi in turn led them to Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the head of the Al-Mukmin pesantren
in Ngruki, near Solo, Central Java, where Ghozi had studied. Ba'asyir was known to
the Malaysian government. Later in January, the probe finally shifted to Indonesia, but
Jakarta police released Ba'asyir after questioning him on January 24. Singapore and
Malaysia were stunned. Ghozi praised Osama bin Laden for his struggle but denied
any knowledge of al-Qaeda or its network.
The document at the heart of this latest dispute between Singapore and Indonesia
was the draft plan to bomb the US embassies in Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala
Lumpur last November and December. All the teams involved in the terrorist attacks
started out from Solo, but only Ghozi was apprehended. His job was to support the
"Jibril" team operating from Singapore. Then two weeks ago the government-owned
Straits Times in Singapore published the so-called "Jibril Document", handed over,
they said, by a pro-US Indonesian intelligence source.
Jakarta quickly denied this, with A M Hendropriyono, the State Intelligence Agency
(BIN) chief, saying the document was actually a combination of intelligence
information obtained from Singaporean, Philippine and Malaysian intelligence. The
irony of thus admitting Indonesia was in the dark appeared to be lost on him.
Another general, R K Sembiring, pensioned off but having one of the military seats in
the House, as well as being deputy chairman of Commission I of the House of
Representatives (DPR), the commission dealing with political and external affairs,
warned in no uncertain terms, "Don't let us be dictated to and ensnared by American
propaganda."
At the same time, fellow Commission I member Yasril Ananta Baharuddin asked the
Indonesian government to be cautious and recognize that the need for better
intelligence cooperation with neighboring countries may well be required. This plea for
reason has disappeared into thin air now after Lee's insensitive public comments and
the heads of political parties met throughout the weekend to draw up their own war
plan. They have not ruled out expelling Singapore's ambassador too if his government
does not repair the damage to Indonesia's "face" and refrain from trying to sideline
Jakarta from the regional consensus to fight the war against terrorism.
US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L Boyce, intent on doing his best to keep trouble
away from his embassy and US citizens in Indonesia, claims he would be surprised if
anyone could say Indonesia is the next stage for international terrorism. While saying
the Americans work very closely with their Indonesian counterparts, he denied US
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had gone to Solo. A much harsher response
had been left to US Ambassador to Singapore Frank Lavin, who a week earlier
rounded on the Indonesian government for not doing enough in the campaign against
international terrorism.
Indonesia's most wanted suspect, meanwhile, is 37-year-old Hambali, alias Riduan
Isamuddin, hunted by the US for alleged links to two of the September 11 hijackers
and suspected of having contributed funds toward the bombing of 12 US aircraft over
the Pacific in 1995. Hambali, close to Al-Ghozi, may be the final link in the Indonesian
connection and is certainly thought by Singapore to have been the lead player in the
bomb-Singapore plan. Indonesia itself has linked him to church bombings in Bandung
and Jakarta. Singapore associates him with the US embassy bomb plot that involved
Jemaah Islamiyah. Malaysia wants to question him on acts of terrorism committed by
Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), another radical group said to be connected
with al-Qaeda.
Like Indonesia, the US will elect a president in 2004. There is no going back for Bush,
riding a wave of unprecedented popularity in the US polls and having just waltzed a
mind-boggling US$2.3 trillion, five-year defense budget through Congress. He will ride
out any dangers thrown up in his dominate-Southeast-Asia-at-all-costs strategy, but
President Megawati Sukarnoputri, less than six months ago Bush's main hope to
carry his message to Indonesia's 190 million Muslims, is highly unlikely to fare so
well. Unable to crack down properly lest her people see it as a surrender to America,
as well as against the interests of the Muslim community, she will need to bite the
bullet and somehow ensure that the US (and Singapore) believe that Indonesia is
playing its part in Bush's crusade. Unfortunately, that crusade is mostly seen as an
attack on Muslims. Singapore cares little about that issue, having recently denied
several Muslim schoolchildren the right to wear the shilbab, specified by their religion,
to a state school.
Singapore is already applying pressure on its neighbor in a knee-jerk reaction that
denied entry to more than 300 Indonesian travelers to Singapore and Malaysia in
January because of rising security concerns over terrorism. "They are worried that
Indonesians entering Singapore and into Malaysia will be a security concern," said
Wachdiyat, a senior Immigration official on Indonesia's Batam island linked to the
nearby Singapore Republic by ferry.
©2001 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd. All rights
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