In a surprise verbal attack, Indonesia has accused Singapore of pursuing foreign policies only for profit and of underestimating the indigenous people of its neighbors.
The Jakarta Post reported yesterday President Abdurrahman Wahid as saying Singapore, which is a mostly ethnic Chinese enclave, had taken advantage of and manipulated Indonesia.
He suggested his country and Malaysia, which are both mainly ethnically Malay, join together to control vital water resources imported into the tiny island state to "teach it a lesson."
PHOTO: AFP
"Singaporeans basically like to underestimate Malay people," he said. "We are considered nonexistent."
Wahid made the comments to a group of Indonesians living in Singapore on Saturday following a two-day meeting there of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The ASEAN summit sought greater ties with fast-growing China as well as Japan and South Korea and ignored his proposal to recruit newly independent East Timor and economically struggling Papua New Guinea into its ranks.
He accused Singapore of blocking the plan "because the cost of letting those countries in would be too much to bear."
The Indonesian leader, who is battling criticism of his crisis-ridden presidency at home, was reportedly unhappy with the attitudes of Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong as well as former leader and now Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
"It became clear from my meeting with Lee Kuan Yew that Singapore is only looking for profit," he said, adding that Lee believed that he would soon step down as Indonesian leader.
Wahid said Singapore was keen at the ASEAN meeting "only on developing relations with China and other East Asian countries."
"If Goh Chok Tong really wants to go his own way ... go ahead, it would be no problem for us because we can go our own way," Wahid said.
Singapore, a globally important trading hub, has ASEAN's most dynamic economy despite being one of its smallest members.
Indonesia, with 210 million people and thousands of islands, is the group's largest state. But its economy is wallowing in crisis.
A lot of investment in Indonesia is Singapore-based, but much has dried up since Asia's financial crisis in the late 1990s. Lack of confidence in Wahid's 14-month government has also taken its toll.
Wahid has called on ASEAN to be more responsive to its poorer members and has suggested that Indonesia set up a new forum with East Timor, Papua New Guinea as well as Australia and New Zealand.
"Singapore might be unhappy with this move," he said. But he added that when it established defense links with Australia and New Zealand and opened it port to US warships "they did not tell Indonesia or Malaysia anything."
He said Indonesia was "too soft and dependent" on Singapore and he praised Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad for taking a harder line on the issue.
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