Silence is Golden? Even after been....step on? 沉默是金？no 以牙还牙？ SINGAPORE — Indonesia yesterday chided Singapore for “behaving like a child” in response to the haze, but Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong would not be drawn into a tit for tat, stressing that he was “not in this exercise of megaphone diplomacy”. Speaking at a press conference on the haze situation held at the Istana, Mr Lee said it would not be “fruitful” for him to respond to Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono, who also claimed that his country would not accept offers of financial aid from Singapore to deal with the forest fires in Sumatra if the amount was not “large”. Asked if he wanted to respond to Mr Agung, Mr Lee said that Singapore and Indonesia should work towards solving the haze problem rather than exchange harsh words. “What we need to do is to solve the problem and to reassure our people that they will be okay and taken care of and everything which can be done is being done,” Mr Lee said. Mr Agung, who was tasked to coordinate Indonesia’s relief and response efforts to the haze crisis, was speaking at a press conference in Jakarta. He was quoted in several media reports as saying that Singapore “should not be behaving like a child and making all this noise”. He added that Indonesia did not want the forest fires either which were “because of nature”. On possible offers of aid from Singapore, he reportedly said: “Unless (Singapore) wants to give us a large amount, we won’t consider accepting it. If it is only half a million, or one million dollars, we don’t need that. We would rather use our own national budget.” In 2002, following a serious bout of haze in 1997, Singapore agreed to provide S$1 million to fund programmes, such as fire prevention and suppression, legislation and enforcement, to tackle the problem of forest fires in the Jambi province in Sumatra. The programme has since been completed. Mr Lee said that in April, when he met his Indonesian counterpart President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a retreat in Singapore, they discussed the possibility of renewing the cooperation agreement in Jambi. To date, Indonesia has yet to indicate its interest, he added. Separately, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members should collaborate to address the situation. “The approach must be one of collaboration and partnership, not one of apportioning blame here and there. Let’s focus on putting the fires out,” he said. In response to Indonesia Forestry Ministry Secretary-General Hadi Daryanto’s comments that Malaysia and Singapore companies were responsible for the forest fires, the Singapore Government has called on Indonesia to provide information and identify the errant companies. To this, Dr Marty was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that Indonesia is “fully aware of the impact and consequences and the need for action” and that “there is actually no need for such a demand”. “Calls of such a type are actually a bit redundant, in the sense that we in Indonesia, the government and our people, want those responsible to be held accountable,” he added. Still, Mr Hadi told Indonesian media that his ministry was ready to partner with Singapore to trace the firms that were behind the fires in Riau. “We are keen to join with neighbouring countries to identify the perpetrators; and the sanctions imposed will be imprisonment, fines and permit revocations,” Mr Hadi said. He reiterated that cooperation from Singapore and Malaysia was needed to track down the companies and prevent future blazes, given that a number of firms operating in the province were from these countries. WITH AGENCIES
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 01:24:21 +0000
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