Goh enhances ties with Middle East
By CT Hj Mahmod in Singapore

Goh wants to divert the attention of the Middle East from the West to
Asia through the Asia-Middle East Dialogue process. AP

Although he stepped down as Singapore's Prime Minister and stepped up into his new role as the Senior Minister just over a month ago, Goh Chok Tong already has a strong grasp of his new mission to forge stronger ties with Middle Eastern countries.

Sixty-three-year-old Goh, best known as the "man who followed Lee Kuan Yew" after his 14-year tenure as the city-state's second Prime Minister is now working on his special interest - to divert the attention of the Middle East from the West to Asia through the Asia-Middle East Dialogue process.

Already, there have been very keen responses from Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Pakistan - countries that the Senior Minister had made working visits to - which support this idea.

The idea is to have a meeting of eminent people in Singapore next year from Middle East and Asia where people from both the private and public sectors can contribute to the process of better understanding between Asia and the Middle East, Goh disclosed.

"This goes beyond the question of dialogue between civilisations. It is political, it is economic, it is social," he said with sheer conviction.

Goh not only spoke of his new mission to a group of journalists on the sidelines of the Global Entrepolis Singapore (GES) but also spoke on terrorism, the threat of radical Islam, how Asean can profit from the emergence of China and India, and even on the prickly issue of Singapore-Malaysia ties.

On whether any Muslim country has the capability to lead the war against terrorism, Goh said, "The moderate Muslim countries will have to play an important role. Unfortunately, I think there's no clear leader amongst the Muslim countries in tackling this problem".

But there must be somebody who can organise the countries to actually argue in this ideological battle and that somebody, according to the Senior Minister, is "a leader who knows the Quran very well and that the radical interpretation of the Quran is doing harm to Islam".

On how real radical Islam's threat is, Goh focused on the group of radical Muslims "who believes in creating an Islamic caliphate out of southern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and southern Philippines"

"This group believes that through violence and their radical ideological teachings, they could radicalise more Muslims to think like them and eventually create this Islamic caliphate".

He did however excluded Brunei, saying "Brunei has handled its own internal situation very well. As a result you (Brunei) don't have a problem of Islamic radicalism".

It will take a long time to turn back this radical tide of Islam where military means alone will not be sufficient. Goh explained that this is where the cooperation of religious teachers and governments to change the content of the religious schools comes in. Particularly worrisome are those clerics who interpret the Quran in a certain way to cause the children, the students, to hate the West.

Changing to a more positive note, the dialogue moved on to how the Senior Minister sees the emergence of China and India as well as how Asean economies can profit from it.

He said during his visit to India, he visualised Asean as a fuselage of a jumbo plane with China as one wing and India the other wing. If both wings take off, Asean, as the fuselage, will also be lifted.

"We would be able to take advantage of niche markets in China and India, both as an investor in these two economies as well as a trader, as well as a platform for Chinese and Indian economies".

Every nation in Asia may have some problems with other countries in the region, he said, "but these are not problems which should bog our economies down".

"They can be resolved. If they can't be resolved, they can be put aside whilst we (Asean) look at cooperation".

With China negotiating an Asean-China FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with Asean followed by similar negotiations with Japan and Korea, and India being keen on pursuing a CCA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) with Asean, Goh sees a real possibility of close cooperation, loosely integrated, economic community.

And the timeframe for all these FTAs - Asean-China and Asean-India - is about 10 years, so 15 years from now, there is a possibility of an economic community emerging.

On the question of outstanding sensitive issues between Singapore and Malaysia asked by a Malaysian journalist, Goh who was appointed by both Malaysia's and Singapore's new Prime Ministers as the interlocutor to resolve the issues, said: "It makes no sense for us to be bogged down by these issues. Let's look forward and cooperate for mutual benefit. There is much to gain by working together".

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin