Indonesian elections: Singapore anxious to see 'good' result

May 18, 1999

AS Indonesians prepare to go to the polls, the country's neighbours are watching developments with varying degrees of concern.....not least in Singapore where thousands of Indonesian Chinese fled after anti-Chinese riots following the downfall of President Suharto. Singapore's former prime minister and now Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Yew has just been in London - and East Asia Today's Larry Jagan asked him if he was worried about the possible instability in Indonesia in the run up to the election:

Lee Kuan Yew: I cannot say why it is an appropriate word, but we are anxious to see a good result for these elections, and good in the sense that the electoral process will not be accompanied by too much tumult and disorder. Second that the results will enable a government and a president to be formed with a majority support of the people, and therefore the strength to bring the country together and repair the social fabric that has been under stress since the collapse of the economy a year ago. In Indonesia you've had minorities being mistreated, Christians and Muslims at each others throats, and indigenous peoples between themselves going for each other because the trans-migrants are not welcome. So it has been a stressful time all around.

Larry Jagan: Many commentators feel that perhaps the result is going to be very unclear. That Golkar may win more seats that anyone else but isn't going to have a massive percentage of the vote. That there will be many parties sharing the vote, and that what will be needed in Indonesia will be some kind of coalition. Do you think that this situation might increase tensions within Indonesia that might flood out into the region?

Lee Kuan Yew: What you have described is not an unlikely outcome because it is the first time that they are having elections that are free and unfettered since 1955. The best guesses of observers are that there will be a very fractured vote. The problem about a coalition is that they run a presidential system, so however you configure their distributional power - there will be one person who will be the president. In fact a coalition might not be bad for Indonesia because you want to heal all the wounds that have been inflicted on the nation. To do that you must bring all the major parties together. The problem will be how to bring this about in a presidential system.