Neighbors Fear Refugee Wave From Indonesia
International Herald Tribune
February 14, 2001
Michael Richardson 

Singapore and Malaysia have tightened border surveillance to prevent Indonesians fleeing economic hardship and violence from entering illegally, officials said Tuesday as Muslim supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid rallied again to counter moves by his opponents to force him to resign.

Increasing political turmoil in Indonesia linked to Islam is also worrying Singapore and Malaysia, prompting officials to appeal for continued tolerance among Muslim and non-Muslim groups in their own populations.

On a visit to Singapore last week, the Malaysian deputy prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, warned that if the situation in Indonesia worsened, Singapore and Malaysia would have to face "a new wave of 'boat people."'

"This can affect our economies, our prosperity," he said.

Indonesians have been flooding into Malaysia in recent days, adding to the "several hundred thousand" already working and living illegally in the country, Malaysian officials said Tuesday.

Singapore and adjacent peninsular Malaysia — both of which are separated from Indonesia by the narrow Malacca Straits — have had to learn to adjust to political uncertainty in the world's fourth most populous nation since riots and recession forced the resignation of President Suharto in 1998, ending a long period of relative stability.

But the wave of sometimes violent protests by Mr. Wahid's religious supporters in the eastern part of the main Indonesian island of Java since Parliament censured him Feb. 1 for alleged involvement in two financial scandals has alarmed Singaporean and Malaysian officials, who fear the possible spillover effects.

"Indonesia is in the midst of a political crisis," the senior minister of Singapore, Lee Kwan Yew, said recently. "Political Islam has become a key player in Indonesia's governance."

In the latest of a series of appeals to maintain ethnic harmony and to keep religion and politics separate, Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan Keng Yam said Saturday that a small country like Singapore with a multiracial population must do three things to maintain unity.

"We must practice meritocracy," he said. "We must help each of the main racial groups — Malays, Chinese, Indians and Eurasians — to help themselves. And most important, we must put national interests above communal interests."

Mr. Wahid, a Muslim cleric who headed the Indonesian Muslim social organization Nahdlatul Ulama for many years, was careful to keep religion and politics apart after he was elected president in October 1999.

The Nahdlatul Ulama — which claims to have 40 million members, many of them in Mr. Wahid's political stronghold in the province of East Java — is one of the largest Muslim organizations in the world.

But as Mr. Wahid's political opponents, including those linked to the rival Muhammadiah Muslim group, intensified their demands for his impeachment, he has appeared to sanction the large-scale counterdemonstrations by the Nahdlatul Ulama and its Banser "self-defense" guards.

Although Mr. Wahid has urged his supporters not to resort to violence, he has failed to bow to his opponents' demands and call for a halt to the demonstrations that last week left dozens injured and led to the burning of rival political party offices in several parts of East Java.

About 10,000 supporters of Mr. Wahid demonstrated in Jember, another East Java town, on Tuesday, underscoring concerns that the wave of protests could lead to further instability, Reuters reported.

Singapore and Malaysia fear the contagious effects of continued political and religious turmoil in Indonesia, said Simon Tay, chairman of the Institute of International Affairs in Singapore.

"There may be an outpouring of refugees," he said. "If there are more clashes between ethnic groups or religious groups, they can spill over borders."

In written testimony to a congressional panel in Washington last Wednesday, the director of the CIA, George Tenet, said that the problems in Indonesia were worrying neighboring countries that had long considered it a pillar of regional stability.

"Some Southeast Asian leaders fear a power vacuum in Indonesia would create fertile ground for international terrorist groups and Islamic activists, drug trafficking and organized crime," Mr. Tenet said.

Some Western officials have warned privately that groups linked to Osama bin Laden, who is wanted by the United States in connection with the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa and other terrorist acts, are already working with Muslim extremists in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Mr. Abdullah, who in addition to being Malaysian deputy prime minister is also the home affairs minister responsible for internal security, said that he was worried about Islam being used by terrorists or extremists to justify their activities. "This is not Islamic," he added. "Islam teaches peace."

The troubles in Indonesia come as Malaysia is experiencing renewed tension not just between majority Muslims and non-Muslim Chinese, but also between moderates and extremists in the Muslim Malay community.

Analysts said that Malaysia's problems stemmed partly from growing public disatisfaction with the long rule of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and with the arrest of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in 1999 and his subsequent conviction on charges of corruption and abuse of power.

Still, illegal immigation to Malaysia — which, like Singapore, is one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest countries — has surged since the East Asian economic crisis of 1997 and 1998. The crisis hurt Malaysia and Singapore but affected their poorer neighbors, especially Indonesia, even more.

Illegal immigrants, many of them from Indonesia, have entered Malaysia to work on plantations and construction sites and in households as domestic helpers — jobs shunned by Malaysians.

There are about 700,000 legal foreign workers in Malaysia and several hundred thousand more illegal immigrants, mainly Indonesians, officials said.

Although more than 97,000 illegals were deported last year, that has not deterred even more from entering clandestinely by boat or legally by ferry and air. While Singapore has bought fast patrol boats and surveillance equipment to prevent illegal immigrants from being smuggled into the island-state by sea, Malaysia faces a much more difficult task due to its long coastline.

The Malaysian defense minister, Najib Razak, said that military patrols had been stepped up in Malaysian waters to try to stem the inflow of illegal immigrants fleeing the upheavals in Indonesia.

In one incident this month, a Malaysian Navy boat fired at a trawler carrying several dozen suspected illegal immigrants near the popular resort island of Langkawi after it reportedly refused to stop and tried to ram the Malaysian vessel. One of the Indonesians on board was shot and killed.

"This incident is a sign of the increasing desperation of Indonesians wanting to come here," Mr. Najib said. "We have to be alert."

Immigration officials in the southernmost Malaysian state of Johor, adjacent to Singapore, said that more than 3,000 Indonesians arrived in the economically booming state each day in January, several times the usual number.

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