Singapore wants to hang on to graft money: Jusuf Kalla

The Straits Times, March 1, 2007
By Azhar Ghani, Indonesia Bureau Chief


JAKARTA - INDONESIAN Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has blamed Singapore for the slow progress in talks on concluding an extradition treaty, accusing it of seeking to hang on to billions in allegedly corrupt money siphoned out of the country by fleeing tycoons.

He made the remarks in response to a question by The Financial Times in an interview published yesterday.

The report focused largely on Indonesia's economic plans and prospects, with the Vice-President forecasting a growth rate of up to 7 per cent this year and promising another go at labour reforms.

But Mr Jusuf also lashed out at Singapore over the ongoing negotiations for an extradition treaty.

'Singapore often says there's so much corruption in Indonesia. But when we want to work together on combating corruption, they don't want to,' he was quoted as saying.

Singapore has maintained that it has no objection to signing an extradition treaty but that it will take time to work out the complex issues involved.

The Republic has also made it clear that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had agreed in 2005 that the treaty could only be signed together with a defence cooperation agreement. Talks on the defence pact have yet to be concluded.

But Mr Jusuf dismissed the explanation, The Financial Times reported. 'They're thinking on the business side,' he said. 'If this treaty is signed then the corrupt Indonesians won't want to live in Singapore any more.

'That's all it is. It strengthens Singapore's economy.'

The prevailing view in Indonesia is that corrupt businessmen and politicians hide - and park their illegal gains - in Singapore.

But as Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo explained in remarks made in Parliament recently, negotiating an extradition treaty is no easy task.

If Jakarta made a case for a person to be extradited, then a course of defence would be whether proper procedures were followed in Indonesia. This means a judge in Singapore will have to examine the conduct of Indonesia's police and judges, the minister said.

'All these things have to be taken into account because the last thing we want is for an extradition treaty to complicate further our bilateral relations with them,' he noted.

Talks on the extradition treaty have come under the spotlight recently following a recent ban by Jakarta on exports of land sand. The official reason given was that it was to protect the environment and preserve maritime boundaries, but some Indonesian officials have said it is a means to pressure Singapore into concluding a treaty.


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Agreement a fact, not claim

A SINGAPORE Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday that a 2005 agreement between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that any extradition treaty could only be signed in tandem with a defence cooperation agreement was no mere claim but a fact.

Responding to media queries on Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla's reported dismissal of the 'claim' in his comments published in the Financial Times yesterday, the spokesman said:

'It is not a claim but a fact that President Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Lee had agreed in October 2005 to negotiate the two agreements in parallel and as a package.

'One cannot be concluded without the other. We would like both agreements to be concluded early.'