Time for PAP to show leadership
Written by Ng E-Jay
20 June 2013
It is time for the PAP government to show leadership in the ongoing haze situation, which has escalated to hazardous levels. Despite being a recurring phenomenon for close to two decades, Indonesia has been unwilling to take effective measures to force big multi-national corporations to clear the land in a responsible and environmentally-conscious manner. Now is the time for the PAP government to rally its ASEAN neighbours in diplomatic solidarity and work together to tackle the crisis which has been slowly smoldering for a long time.
The case of Indonesia’s moral bankruptcy, ineptitude, gross indifference to human health, and unwillingness to do the right thing in the face of corporate avarice and recklessness provides a classic study in contemporary geopolitics and geo-economics.
Indonesia has gotten away with these transgressions because it is geographically large and is in a position of military influence over trading routes in the region.
Indonesia also derives immense geopolitical and geo-economic power from its close alliance with the United States, whose ships patrol the major sea lanes and bring all regional naval and shipping activity under its dominion.
Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew saw that only by allying Singapore closely with both the United States and Indonesia, could we also safeguard ourselves and encourage a stable balance of power in the region within which Singapore can thrive.
Thus, Mr Lee Kuan Yew built a close friendship with former Indonesian president Suharto and made sure that diplomatic amity with Indonesia took precedence over all other considerations. When the Suharto regime fell in 1998 partly due to the Asian financial crisis, Singapore faced a serious backlash from Suharto’s political enemies. Such is the precarious state that Singapore has always been in.
The current political administration headed by Mr Lee Hsien Loong has been weak and indecisive in the foreign policy front, preferring instead to take the safe route of projecting power inwards rather than outwards. This has been exploited by the Indonesian politicians in recent days, who pointed out that Singapore has yet to address the issue of an extradition treaty with Indonesia, or deal the with case of corrupt money from Indonesia finding a safe haven in Singapore’s financial institutions.
Knowledge of Mr Lee Hsien Loong’s leadership weakness has even emboldened Indonesian Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono to chide Singapore for behaving like a child in the haze crisis.
In a mind-boggling act of arrogance, he even remarked that the haze is “not what Indonesians want, it’s nature“, as if forest fires designed to clear the land for commercial crops are a naturally occurring phenomenon that cannot be prevented.
The current PAP administration is being put to the test. Will its foreign policies stand the test of time, or is change required? The PAP government must stop behaving like bullies when it comes to local citizens, but weaklings on the world stage.
The first step, I believe, must be to rally our ASEAN comrades in a show of solidarity and force. The second, is to use our financial stake in those recalcitrant companies to muscle them into obedience or force them to pay the price for their depraved indifference to humanity. Now is the time for PM Lee to show his mettle, and be judged accordingly.
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http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=8427
