Hantu Laut
The unschooled Indonesian media shit-stirring their President for apologising to Singapore and Malaysia, which was the right thing he did, unlike his minister who is equally unschooled in protocol and foreign relation, behaving like orang hutan.
From WSJ:
Indonesia’s president defended his decision to offer a rare mea culpa to Malaysia and Singapore for the haze that long-burning fires are sending into the neighboring countries, a move that sparked a small torrent of criticism in this country of 240 million people where the president’s image isn’t what it once was.
“Due to the fact the haze is from Indonesia, we take responsibility, and saying sorry in that context, to me, is not excessive,” a miffed-looking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters Wednesday, a day after apologizing to Jakarta’s closest neighbors over a particularly bad spell of an annual conflict dating back to the 1980s.
Asked whether he had felt pressure to apologize after weeks of media attention and statements from leaders overseas, he said “What I’ve done in the past two to three days…is fully my decision.”
He made a point of saying that he would continue to press both countries on issues close to home: fighting for domestic workers’ rights in Malaysia and pushing for an extradition treaty with Singapore, saying the latter remained the home of many assets moved illegally overseas during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.
Newspapers Wednesday and Thursday were filled with news of the apology, with many quick to criticize the president for a problem partly caused by the sizable Singaporean and Malaysian plantation companies operating in Indonesia, particularly in the fire-choked province of Riau.
Offering a contrarian voice, however, was the influential daily Kompas, which called the apology “noble.”
But in Dumai — a dusty, outpost town built on palm oil and timber where traffic lights are routinely ignored– the owner of a convenient store downtown offered the more common view across Riau.
“It’s embarrassing. Why does our president have to apologize to Malaysia and Singapore?” Read more http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2013/06/27/indonesias-president-defends-apology-to-malaysia-and-singapore/
1 comment:
I thought the condemnation would be total though, didn't know that Kompas would actually call his apology noble.
Anyway the problem is that some Indonesia's media is owned by presidential hopefuls for the next year presidential election, the extent they would go to get populist support won't go well for Indonesia Malaysia bilateral relations.
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