Impossible to Continue with Defense Agreement
Wednesday, 20 February, 2008 | 15:53 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Yusron Ihza Mahendra, a House of Representatives (DPR) member from the Democracy Star Pioneer faction, and Djoko Susilo a DPR member from the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, have said that were certain that the defense agreement signed by Indonesia and Singapore will not go on.

According to them, the agreement contents are very much detrimental to Indonesia from the aspect of defense.

From the aspect of procedure, said Yusron, there are also defects in the agreement.

“The DPR has never been involved in the process,” said Yusron, last Monday.

Djoko also said that Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has already stated that the agreement will most probably be canceled.

“If the agreement is brought before the DPR, we'll definitely reject it,” he said.

According to Yusron, it would impossible to separate the defense cooperation agreement (DCA) separated from the extradition agreement.

In terms of Indonesia's national interests, the agreement clearly means submitting regions for military training area, which certainly would endanger defense.

As regards the extradition agreement, if this were actually to go on, it would only for bringing back people, not assets.

This is despite Indonesia wanting to recover assets taken to Singapore by several corruptors, in addition to bringing back the perpetrators for trial.

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