A

t the risk of sounding like a broken record, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has shown his persistence to his Singaporean counterpart, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, by bringing up talks about extradition and asset recovery of Indonesian criminals taking shelter in the city state.

After a bilateral meeting held at the Bogor Presidential Palace in West Java on Tuesday, Yudhoyono said that Lee was open to the possibility of another round of talks on an extradition treaty. The previous deal, inked by both parties in 2007, failed to take effect after Indonesian lawmakers rejected its ratification.

“I told Prime Minister Lee that cooperation on extradition and defense was suddenly discontinued due to escalating political tensions here, particularly in 2009,” Yudho-yono said at a press conference after the meeting.

“I told him this is the right time to talk about it again because it will bring real benefits to Singapore, Indonesia, and the region.”

Yudhoyono said that it was not possible at the time to ratify the treaty in Indonesia because of numerous comments and critics.

“But this time, we should start over with good intentions,” he said.

“Singapore’s response was actually good, and they were open to it whenever we are ready to renegotiate. My hope is that there’s strong enough political support from our side, so we can reach what we have been expecting.”

In 2007, Indonesia and Singapore signed an extradition treaty that would enable Indonesian law enforcement officers to go after dozens of graft suspects who had sought refuge in Singapore. An additional agreement on defense would have granted both countries the right to conduct military training in each other’s territories.

However, Indonesia’s lawmakers rejected the ratification of the treaty, arguing it favored Singapore and could compromise Indonesia’s security and sovereignty.

In September 2011, Singapore’s Minister of State for Home and Foreign Affairs, Masagos Zulkifli, said the 2007 deal was final with Singapore having ratified it.

Zulkifli stressed that Singapore would never renegotiate the deal since it would set a bad precedent for the country in the eyes of the international community.

While it is unlikely that any progress will be made toward achieving the type of extradition treaty that
Indonesia longs for with Singapore, efforts to cooperate on the freezing and seizure of criminal proceeds, particularly from corruption, will remain open as the issue was not included in the previous extradition treaty.

“Singapore is known as a clean country with an outstanding anticorruption record; thus, it will definitely be good if this treaty can be renegotiated,” Yudhoyono said.

“The world will also learn that Singapore can play an important role bilaterally and regionally in such cooperation.”

Singaporean officials refused to comment on the meeting, which was the second bilateral “retreat” after an initial sit-down in Singapore in 2010.

House of Representatives’ foreign affairs, defense and intelligence commission chairman Mahfudz Siddiq said there was an urgency to renegotiate the treaty as Indonesian corruption suspects’ money-laundering activities in Singapore had become alarming.

“However, our stance is clear that any treaty or deal related to extradition and asset recovery should have no strings attached to any defense agreement,” said Mahfudz of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).