Author: AFP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 4, 2003
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=1149731430
Southeast Asia's elder statesman
Lee Kuan Yew wrapped up a four-day visit here on Wednesday warning the
region to be on alert for growing "anti-Zion" Islamic crusade spawned by
fighting in Afghanistan.
The Singapore Senior Minister said
there had been "a kind of Islamic globalisation" in the past 20 years,
with many Muslim volunteers taking up arms in Afghanistan and training
to be mujahiddeens.
"It's become a kind of internationalised
anti-Zion, anti- crusade," Lee told a press conference.
"I think there would be a flow of
this and we have to watch it carefully because if they take root in Indonesia,
come up to Malaysia and come up to Johor, then we're vulnerable."
Johor is Malaysia's most southern
state neighbouring Singapore. Lee said Islamic militancy was "not yet as
deeply rooted" as the communism had been in then-Malaya and Singapore in
the 1960s.
"I do not want to downplay the capabilities
of the Islamic radicals. I think they could over time develop the same
skills (as the communists)... they certainly have the determination.
"If they develop the same degree
of penetration in society, then we are into a very different situation."
In Malaysia, Lee noted the prominence
of the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) which aims to set up an
Islamic state and said it would be "problematic" for Singapore if PAS ever
comes into power.
PAS came into the spotlight in the
1999 general elections, at the expense of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
"It is quite unlikely that PAS can
win in 2004 (general election) or most unlikely, but it is not unlikely
that UMNO may lose a few more (parliamentary) seats and even a few more
states to PAS," Lee said. "It is not a disastrous outcome but it could
be the erosion of the moral authority of UMNO... it can be reversed if
certain policies are adopted."
Lee, who struck a deal with Mahathir
after talks Tuesday to settle a number of longstanding contentious issues,
said Singapore had to compromise more than expected in tough negotiations.
Singapore's request for 750 million
gallons of water from Johor state after 2061 when a water contract expires
has been reduced to 350 million gallons, with water prices to be drastically
increased.
The city-state, which obtaines half
of its daily water needs from Johor state, also has to give Malaysia 12
parcels of land as a "bonus" for the water.
It also resolved a long dispute
over prime land owned by Malaysian railway firm by agreeing to exchange
it with another piece of land. It also agreed to Malaysia's plan to build
a rail tunnel linking the countries.
"We gave way on the railway land,
we pay more for the water and got half of what we ask for in water," Lee
said.
He said Singapore could have stood
firm and wait to see how the situation develops but was worried it may
later have to deal with a "government that will not deliver."
"We have not given in so easily
but we have to decided to make a deal, even though it's not one I would
say is balanced... it could have been better but a deal's a deal, so let's
move on."
Asked about his feelings, the 77-year-old
Lee laughed and said: "You want to be my psychologist."
Relations between Malaysia and its
tiny but prosperous neighbour have often been prickly since Singapore was
ejected from the federation of Malaysia in 1965, two years after it was
founded.
Lee is recognised as the founder
of modern day Singapore and is widely credited for transforming the former
British colony into one of Asia's wealthiest countries.
