Indonesia will not allow Singapore to act against its citizens

This is the latest coming from down under, the big brother of Asean.  Singapore thinks that by passing the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act it can then go around arresting anyone it likes for violating this law? The Americans can do it, passing all kinds of silly transboundary laws and go about applying to countries around the world. That is American Exceptionalism or America is the Empire and can impose any laws onto anyone. Small little countries must know their places and stop believing in myth that it can punch above its weight.

The strong objection and statement are testimony to might is right and when one is small, it is better not to be too overbearing. You can only punch above your weight if the bigger party allows you to do so. Indonesia would not allow Singapore to act against its citizens even if their acts affected and hurt Singapore and Singaporeans. What can Singapore do about it?  On the other hand Indonesia is arresting fishing boats from China, Malaysia, Vietnam etc and their citizens for violating their territorial waters. Not sure about the rest, but in China’s case, Indonesia is acting like it is punching above its weight against China. They believe China could not do anything against the Indonesian Navy. In reality, it is China that is allowing the Indonesians to punch above its weight. Anytime China could withdraw this privilege like Indonesia is doing now to Singapore, and arrest Indonesian naval ships when it decided enough is enough.

There is one area that Singapore can punch above its weight. Throw money around. We have a lot of money to throw and those who needed money would come crawling to plead with us, to let us feel important, full of dignity, and to throw our weight around with our money to punch above our weight, …and to look silly after that when the money is gone.

How many millions do you want, $100m, $500m or $1b?