The Sunday Review

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Keep race relations an internal affair

EYE ON THE WORLD By ASAD LATIF

INDONESIAN President B.J. Habibie's views on Singapore are baffling, to say the least.

His latest remarks suggest that he regards Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew highly. In the same breath, however, he makes a series of grating and gratuitous comments on the Republic.

Asked by a group of Taiwanese journalists about discrimination against the ethnic Chinese in his country, he chose to draw Singapore into a domestic issue in which it is not involved.

"In fact, the situation in Singapore is worse. In Singapore, if you are a Malay, you can never become a military officer," he said. "They are the real racists, not here. You can go and check it out."

What a reply! Apart from being wrong factually -- for there are Malay military officers in this country -- the statement is decidedly provocative.

It is easy to see why it was made. Blunting the effect of domestic discontent by deflecting it towards a foreign country is a time-honoured game in politics.

By juxtaposing Singapore as the Chinese "other" against Indonesia's pribumi self, the remarks intend to re-direct Indonesian wrath over the state of the economy and society towards a convenient foreign target.

The target is convenient because it is small, a red dot on the sprawling map of South-east Asia. The expected diplomatic repercussions from the comments are minor compared to the domestic advantage that can be derived from them.

In the event, an indirect rebuttal of Dr Habibie's claims on race relations arrived from an unexpected source.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad told a BBC World Service radio interview that conditions in his country and Indonesia could not be compared.

Among other things, he argued that his government had ensured that indigenous people did not lag behind ethnic Chinese citizens.

"In Indonesia, they didn't do that, that is why the Indonesians attack the Chinese," he noted. "In Malaysia, you don't find racial problems during these times, so we are not like Indonesia at all."

Though Dr Mahathir did not support the Singapore model of multi-racialism, he upheld the superiority of his own system over the Indonesian one.

And though Singapore prefers its own multi-racial model to the Malaysian one, that does not detract from the fact that Dr Mahathir gave a dim assessment of the state of race relations in Indonesia.

This public airing of uncomplimentary views suggests that the respect for sensitivities which have guided international relations in Asean over the past three decades is being eroded by the domestic political insecurities and vulnerabilities generated by the economic crisis.

President Habibie's verbal bullying of Singapore attests to this deterioration of the diplomatic environment.

How should this country respond?

The challenge for it is to find the right balance between registering its displeasure -- because silence will be misconstrued as a sign of weakness -- and avoiding giving offence, something that will merely feed into the hands of Indonesians who are not well-disposed towards the Republic.

What needs to be impressed on Indonesians is that relations between pribumis and Chinese are their affair. Singapore accepts the reality of the Indonesian situation and does not take sides in the evolution of racial politics there.

In fact, this country has demonstrated that attitude already by preventing the attacks on Chinese Indonesians from turning into a bilateral issue.

Far from fanning disquiet on the Chinese ground here, the Government has encouraged Singaporeans to contribute to humanitarian aid schemes for Indonesia in addition to its own programmes of assistance.

The truth, that race relations are an internal affair, applies equally to the two countries. Singapore is keeping its part of the bargain. So should Indonesia.

As for President Habibie's personal attitude to this country, his own Education Minister has offered a sound piece of advice.

Dr Juwono Sudarsono thought that Dr Habibie "has a lot of learning and unlearning to do about Singapore".

It could not have been put better.

[The writer is a senior writer with The Straits Times.]

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