House told to assert RI interests in defense deal

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 05/31/2007 8:49 AM

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An international law expert has called on the House of Representatives to press the government to reassert Indonesia's national interests in the defense cooperation agreement (DCA) with Singapore, which, along with the parallel extradition treaty, has sparked fierce criticism from legislators.

""The government and relevant authorities should be skilled to insert detailed national interests in the arrangements that have to be made in implementing the DCA. The devil is in the detail,"" Hikmahanto Juwana of the University of Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Hikmahanto was commenting on the strong criticism aired by the House's Commission I for foreign affairs and defense of the defense cooperation and extradition agreements during a hearing with Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Air Chief Marshall Djoko Suyanto on Monday.

The two agreements, which were recently ratified by Singapore, were signed in Bali on April 29 this year.

While not supporting the current format of the extradition and defense treaties, Hikmahanto said, however, that the House should not abruptly reject the deals without first scrutinizing them in the hope of pushing for renegotiations between Indonesia and Singapore, which could ultimately benefit the Army, Navy and Air Force.

If the insertion of detailed national interests into the DCA is entrusted to the TNI, he added, the problem becomes whether the military has negotiators skilled enough to get the job done.

Almost all members of the defense and foreign affairs commission said they would reject ratifying the treaties.

Hikmahanto said Indonesia and Singapore should, therefore, go back to the negotiation table to make the package more appealing to House legislators. He assured that this measure would in no way damage Indonesia's international credibility.

""Such a rejection is normal in international relations and Singapore and other countries should respect democracy in Indonesia. There is no international problem if the House fights for national interests rather than for the bilateral agreements,"" he said, citing that the U.S. had signed the Rome Statute on gross human rights abuses but had yet to ratify it.

Hikmahanto also questioned Juwono's justification for the agreements. The defense minister told the House commission that through the two agreements Indonesia had traded space for money. Hikmahanto said, however, that the extradition treaty would not guarantee that the city-state could return the money stolen from Indonesia.

""Without the DCA, Singapore would (still) sign the extradition agreement to show the international world it is a world financial center that is clean of money laundering. Besides, before the signing of the agreement, targeted fugitives are believed to have escaped with their stolen money,"" he said.

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