The Cocoon Man 天蚕人

Life is but many layers of cocoon. Great wonders await outside the thin layer of cocoon within you, break it apart to experience a whole new world! 破茧而出,犹如泰斗!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Politics: Indonesia TV program slams Singapore, incites anti-Singapore sentiments

Hi fellow bloggers, would like to highlight a TV documentary “Sigi 30 menit” broadcast to the whole of Indonesia today (01 Apr 07), 1230 WIB (SGT 1:30pm) on SCTV channel, one of the leading TV stations in Indonesia.

As a Singaporean, I don’t feel comfortable with the 1-sided reporting, although it is true that significant environmental damage has been done to the regions neighbouring Singapore. So I decided to submit this blog first though I’m quite busy in Jakarta.

I actually missed probably the first 10 mins of this documentary and can only share what I have seen and understood with my grasp of Bahasa Indonesia… …

The program started by introducing the recent sand export to Singapore and describing in detail the various barges and vessels that have been apprehended in the waters off Southern Singapore. The Navy has since stepped up its monitoring activities.

It seems residents who used to make a living from the sand export are not pleased with the ban as it leads to loss of jobs and income. The central government however has remained oblivious to the exacerbating situation.

Several people from the province of Riau Archipelago were interviewed, including government officials, a Navy spokesman, an academic and residents/workers on the islands affected by the sand embargo.

It is interesting to note that the academic, a certain Professor, produced a masterplan of Singapore in the Year 2020, which showed several big islands in the Southern Waters of Singapore. The map was in English and also showed the western tip of Singapore to have protruded a significant distance away from the main island (a possible extension of the Jurong Industrial Area). He probably downloaded it from a Singapore government website. When compared with another map of Singapore in 1973, it became obvious that the southern islands of the masterplan had been enlarged to undue proportions.

Something like this… but think this is worse. Note the big patch of purple region. Taken from URA website. Luckily the Professor didn't show this version!

As compared to this:

The documentary seems to imply that if Indonesia had not taken quick action, Singapore would have continued to benefit tremendously from land exclamation projects using sands from Indonesia. It showed footages of Sentosa, Harbour Front and even mentioned the Integrated Resorts (the Casinos! Anathema to a great religion.) as future construction projects. The program sure has a way to incite anti-Singapore sentiments!

The plight of several islands which have experienced irreversible environmental damage due to sand exploration (or exploitation, depending on your viewpoint) was also highlighted, such as Pulau Sebaik. The islands look barren, lifeless and unfit for human settlement. (However this seems to be a small degree of damage as inflicted in other parts of Indonesia, such as the indiscriminate burning of tropical jungles in Kalimantan and the extensive mud outpour in Sidoarjo, East Java. Not to mention the unlawful dumping of industrial waste and other poisonous stuff all over Indonesia.)

The program concluded by mentioning the extradiction talks that were alleged to have been disrupted by Singapore, with one politician in Jakarta saying that Singapore had been uncooperative and irresponsible, citing an official letter to the Singapore Government on extradiction issues. (But it failed to mention or highlight if there was any reply from Singapore.)


My Views:

Environmental damage is unavoidable in the age of modernization, whether it’s to the benefit of Singapore or Indonesia. There has never been any talk of illegal sand exports as such activities used to be carried out with mutual consent. So what’s the motive behind the finger-pointing now? Any astute observer would have figured out the nature of this political game.

Indonesia, by its strong actions, will have to be responsible in sustaining the livelihood of thousands of residents in the Riau region who are now jobless and approaching bankruptcy due to the sudden ban. Furthermore, I don’t think Indonesia will be keen to provide funds to preserve or restore the damaged islands and surrounding regions.

Singapore, on the other hand, may soon get alternative suppliers or adopt new construction materials. We don’t really need too much sand to add to our small land area. Construction projects can be customized to minimize use of limited building materials. I sincerely don’t think we are keen to link up a short causeway just next to Batam like the Woodlands-JB Checkpoint.

NOTE: Those Singapore contractors and other parties who have been profiting from sales of sand and other construction materials due to excess stock in their inventories better be patriotic and donate 2% of their new-found income to the poor and destitute in Singapore. Senior Minister Goh already requested the rich to do something similar. Don’t wait for our multi-millionaire ministers to take the lead, because they may be busy preparing new guidelines and charts to assure people they can be paid better still.

3 Comments:

At 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, Singapore also has one-sided reporting, so it seems fair for them to comment like that. Indonesia has greater freedom of the press than Singapore. So I suspect the truth is easier to find there than in Singapore. Right?

 
At 5:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

now that's a big "thank you" coming from a country whom we helped out during their tsunami period and plane crash search efforts.

 
At 7:45 PM, Blogger The Cocoon Man 天蚕人 said...

Hi to the person who commented on the Search & Rescue efforts aided by the Singapore Air Force,
You're TOTALLY wrong!

I've seen newspaper reports in Jakarta claiming that the Singapore military plane which helped to locate Adam Air was actually using this as a pretext to conduct spying work!

 

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