Personal Response to Current Affairs

This is my third personal response to current affairs, which is on political issues. This article was taken from the BBC online news, 12 Feb 2007. The website URL is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6353633.stm.

Indonesia bans sand to Singapore (Political issues)

According to the article, Indonesia has imposed a ban on sand exports to Singapore, on the basis protecting Indonesia’s coastal environments. However, Singapore newspapers reported that the real cause was to give a signal to Singapore that it should quickly agree to an extradition treaty and resolve issues related to border demarcations, and a defence pact. This is significant as Singapore, which exports mammoth amounts of sand from Indonesia, will have its industries suffering if the problem is not resolved.

The different views on the reason behind Indonesia’s sand ban is something for us to think about.

On Indonesia’s perspective, it is a move worthy of applause as they have begun to take steps in ensuring the natural environment’s continuity. It is also true that the sand-mined coasts of Indonesia have been disturbed and damaged. Therefore it is not unreasonable that they want to stop these sand-mining activities in order to save the environment. Even so, a blanket ban on sand exports is still too exaggerated. The ban may come to anger Singapore to stop its business and trade relations with Indonesia, which is ultimately detrimental to Indonesia. Furthermore, by banning sand exports like how log exports were banned, there would also be those illegal industries who will mine sand on the sly, thereby defeating the purpose of the ban.

On Singapore’s perspective, we inevitably will think that this is an underhanded resort by Indonesia to pressure us to agree to these deals mentioned earlier. It is true though, that if Singapore had agreed to the extradition treaty, Singapore faces the possibility of losing the trust of Indonesians, as they would just follow Indonesia’s instructions and send the supposed fugitives back to Indonesia, without actually being able to determine whether these people have really committed crimes. Therefore Singapore would think that Indonesia has banned the sand export to coerce Singapore into agreeing to sign the treaty.

I personally feel that Indonesia is using “underhanded” methods to achieve their aims. The way I see it, the sand ban is extremely detrimental to Singapore. Construction costs have skyrocketed, and if the sand ban persists, the increased price of the building materials used may even affect me when I grow up.

Commenting as a mere member of the public, I think that there are many unseen factors that have lead to the current situation. Thus, my judgement of the situation will very likely be inaccurate. Many political factors are unknown to us, and I would tend to side with the Singapore government, since ultimately the government’s decisions are mostly for the benefit of the citizens.

From this article, I have learnt that we should always look at a problem from every possible perspective, as there is never really only one “correct” view. Thus, we should analyse each view carefully, and come to a consensus as to what kind of an opinion we should accept, because only when we are willing to accept all possible information will the big picture come into light.