Top Jakarta lawmaker: Send back Singapore envoy

The Straits Times, February 22, 2007
By Azhar Ghani, Indonesia Bureau Chief



Parliamentary Speaker suggests move as protest against Republic's 'unfriendly acts'

JAKARTA - JAKARTA should register its unhappiness with Singapore by sending back its ambassador, Indonesia's leading lawmaker said yesterday.

Speaking to Antara news agency, Parliamentary Speaker Agung Laksono complained about 'unfriendly acts' on the part of Singapore.

'I believe the government should send the ambassador back as a sign of protest,' he said.

He cited the Republic's land reclamation projects, which, he said, could affect Indonesia's maritime borders.

Mr Agung's comments were the latest from Jakarta in recent weeks attacking Singapore on matters related to Indonesia's recent ban on exports of land sand.

When Indonesia first imposed the ban, it gave as its reasons the need to protect its maritime boundaries as well as the preservation of the country's environment.

But soon after, senior officials such as Mr Primo Alui Joeljanto, a director-general at its foreign ministry, made known publicly that there were other reasons for the ban.

They said it was to pressure Singapore on issues related to border talks and expediting the conclusion of an extradition treaty.

Indonesian nationalists have often expressed concerns over the possibility that the country's neighbours might try to expand their maritime borders if some of its unmapped outer islands were to disappear under unchecked sand quarrying.

Ongoing talks between Singapore and Indonesia on the border issue began in February 2005, after it was raised at a Jakarta meeting the year before between then-deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Back then, Singapore said it felt there were only two areas where its boundary with Indonesia was not clearly marked - one to the east and the other to the west of Singapore.

The Republic has always maintained that its reclamation works are carried out within its territorial waters and will not alter its maritime boundaries with Indonesia.

But Mr Agung yesterday again raised concerns about territorial encroachment and said the Indonesian government should take up the reclamation issue with Singapore.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda also indicated the matter was not over when he told Indo Pos on Tuesday that it was as yet unclear whether Indonesia's still-unmarked borders with Singapore would be affected.

But international law expert Hikmahanto Juwana believes that Singapore's reclamation works would indeed have no impact.

The University of Indonesia don was reported in the Kompas daily as saying that any land reclaimed by Singapore would be at the expense of its own sea territory.

azhar@sph.com