The Straits Times, March 17, 2007
By Paul Jacob, Deputy Political Editor
NOT JUST ABOUT GRANITE: The latest discord over granite exports is another reflection of a long-standing attempt by competing groups in Indonesia's government to redefine the country's relationship with Singapore.
By Paul Jacob, Deputy Political Editor
NOT JUST ABOUT GRANITE: The latest discord over granite exports is another reflection of a long-standing attempt by competing groups in Indonesia's government to redefine the country's relationship with Singapore.THERE appeared to be some clarity on the granite issue late on Thursday when Indonesia said exports to Singapore will be allowed, subject to checks.
That was what Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told reporters at a Jakarta news conference.
Separately, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, who met his Singapore counterpart, Mr George Yeo, on the sidelines of a gathering in Nuremberg, Germany, reversed his earlier pronouncements and said it was not true that the Indonesian Cabinet was looking at proposals to ban granite exports.
But wait. Before anyone picks up the phone and orders a load of ready-mix concrete for that new project in Katong or Kranji, consider this: Both Indonesian ministers qualified their remarks by underlining the importance of checks and verifications.
Dr Hassan said teams Jakarta sent to Riau to investigate the detention of Singapore tugs and barges by the Indonesian navy found some had breached regulations.
It was not known if he was referring to allegations in news reports that they were carrying sand - the export of which is banned - under a layer of granite aggregate, which the construction industry uses to produce concrete.
Dr Mari, at her media conference, said checks would have to be made to verify the source, ports of departure and vessels which ship the cargo.
But she added that if the rules - designed to protect the environment - were 'deemed insufficient, they will be evaluated'.
Rough translation: no ban, but it can still happen.
And with its conscience apparently pricked, and environmental degradation uppermost in its mind, the Indonesian navy may yet throw a spade in the works.
It will, after all, be responsible for intercepting vessels and politely ask their captains to lift the tarpaulins for a peek at what's underneath.
Checks at sea or the nearest port mean uncertainty because delays will be inevitable, as are the costs involved in the process.
And given the navy continues to push for a ban on exports, any grain - oh all right, any spadeful - of sand found amid the granite will give it an excuse to detain, confiscate or dispose of the loads.
Indonesia continues to cite environmental damage as the reason for its recent actions on sand, and now granite.
Its environmentalists and officials alike have argued that constant mining over the years has damaged coastal areas, caused low-lying islands to almost disappear, particularly in the Riaus south of Singapore, where much of the activity has taken place.
The move can be seen as a bid to exercise greater and more effective control over exploitation of its resources.
In that context, many here are expectant and would applaud should they see Jakarta bring the same enthusiasm and enforcement to how it deals with the clearing of forests and fields that brings the haze annually to much of the region.
It also cannot have escaped many that only sand exports have been banned, and not sand dredging per se, which is supposed to damage the environment.
My own sense is that the bans and export restrictions are just another reflection of a long-standing bid by some in its legislature and government to redefine its relationship with Singapore.
It has been an ongoing process since the fall of former president Suharto in 1998. It started with a more nationalist, confident and assertive B.J. Habibie, who saw the opportunity to change what the elite at the time regarded as having hitherto been a cosy relationship, one in which they felt Jakarta had been most accommodating and conciliatory to Singapore - to a fault.
That was going to change.
The now oft-cited 'little red dot' remark captured and shaped their sentiments.
And it has become an embedded part of the national psyche there, despite the far more rational and constructive attitude incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has built up with Singapore's leaders today.
But the operating environment in Jakarta has been altered significantly. The presidency is no longer the ultimate decider and power centre it once was under Mr Suharto.
A more feisty and assertive legislature, where interest groups coincide and collide, has become more powerful.
Indonesia's democratisation process, devolution of powers to the region, a more active media, a demanding population and a military trying to reposition itself on the political centre stage are all adding to the mix.
Give them any excuse - sand, an extradition treaty, defence agreement, granite, boundary demarcation - and the opinions and pressures from any or all of these players will start to exert and pull, often in different directions.
It seems these competing groups try to signal that the closer its leaders get to Singapore, the more alert they will become to the development of a relationship that could slip into the kind of accommodating - and, yes, to many there, exploitative - relationship they believe Singapore had in the past with its large southern neighbour.
So its legislators and officials, and others who choose to do so, get their defences up, get tough, and squeeze where they can.
Given the different kind of political, business and social model prevailing there, Singaporeans should not be surprised, nor alarmed, by the higher level of rhetoric and harder lines that come out of Jakarta from among the elite and its other political players.
That was what Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told reporters at a Jakarta news conference.
Separately, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, who met his Singapore counterpart, Mr George Yeo, on the sidelines of a gathering in Nuremberg, Germany, reversed his earlier pronouncements and said it was not true that the Indonesian Cabinet was looking at proposals to ban granite exports.
But wait. Before anyone picks up the phone and orders a load of ready-mix concrete for that new project in Katong or Kranji, consider this: Both Indonesian ministers qualified their remarks by underlining the importance of checks and verifications.
Dr Hassan said teams Jakarta sent to Riau to investigate the detention of Singapore tugs and barges by the Indonesian navy found some had breached regulations.
It was not known if he was referring to allegations in news reports that they were carrying sand - the export of which is banned - under a layer of granite aggregate, which the construction industry uses to produce concrete.
Dr Mari, at her media conference, said checks would have to be made to verify the source, ports of departure and vessels which ship the cargo.
But she added that if the rules - designed to protect the environment - were 'deemed insufficient, they will be evaluated'.
Rough translation: no ban, but it can still happen.
And with its conscience apparently pricked, and environmental degradation uppermost in its mind, the Indonesian navy may yet throw a spade in the works.
It will, after all, be responsible for intercepting vessels and politely ask their captains to lift the tarpaulins for a peek at what's underneath.
Checks at sea or the nearest port mean uncertainty because delays will be inevitable, as are the costs involved in the process.
And given the navy continues to push for a ban on exports, any grain - oh all right, any spadeful - of sand found amid the granite will give it an excuse to detain, confiscate or dispose of the loads.
Indonesia continues to cite environmental damage as the reason for its recent actions on sand, and now granite.
Its environmentalists and officials alike have argued that constant mining over the years has damaged coastal areas, caused low-lying islands to almost disappear, particularly in the Riaus south of Singapore, where much of the activity has taken place.
The move can be seen as a bid to exercise greater and more effective control over exploitation of its resources.
In that context, many here are expectant and would applaud should they see Jakarta bring the same enthusiasm and enforcement to how it deals with the clearing of forests and fields that brings the haze annually to much of the region.
It also cannot have escaped many that only sand exports have been banned, and not sand dredging per se, which is supposed to damage the environment.
My own sense is that the bans and export restrictions are just another reflection of a long-standing bid by some in its legislature and government to redefine its relationship with Singapore.
It has been an ongoing process since the fall of former president Suharto in 1998. It started with a more nationalist, confident and assertive B.J. Habibie, who saw the opportunity to change what the elite at the time regarded as having hitherto been a cosy relationship, one in which they felt Jakarta had been most accommodating and conciliatory to Singapore - to a fault.
That was going to change.
The now oft-cited 'little red dot' remark captured and shaped their sentiments.
And it has become an embedded part of the national psyche there, despite the far more rational and constructive attitude incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has built up with Singapore's leaders today.
But the operating environment in Jakarta has been altered significantly. The presidency is no longer the ultimate decider and power centre it once was under Mr Suharto.
A more feisty and assertive legislature, where interest groups coincide and collide, has become more powerful.
Indonesia's democratisation process, devolution of powers to the region, a more active media, a demanding population and a military trying to reposition itself on the political centre stage are all adding to the mix.
Give them any excuse - sand, an extradition treaty, defence agreement, granite, boundary demarcation - and the opinions and pressures from any or all of these players will start to exert and pull, often in different directions.
It seems these competing groups try to signal that the closer its leaders get to Singapore, the more alert they will become to the development of a relationship that could slip into the kind of accommodating - and, yes, to many there, exploitative - relationship they believe Singapore had in the past with its large southern neighbour.
So its legislators and officials, and others who choose to do so, get their defences up, get tough, and squeeze where they can.
Given the different kind of political, business and social model prevailing there, Singaporeans should not be surprised, nor alarmed, by the higher level of rhetoric and harder lines that come out of Jakarta from among the elite and its other political players.
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