This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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Singapore’s foreign ministry voiced in a statement issued this late Wednesday that the Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam had spoken to his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, over the issue of naming a naval ship after marines that were executed after bombing an office complex in the 1960s. K. Shanmugam reported that ‘Singapore’s concerns over the naming of the navy ship and the impact this would have on the feelings of Singaporeans, especially the families of the victims’ of the bomb attack. ‘The two Indonesian marines were found guilty of the bombing, which killed three people and injured 33 others,’ the statement further revealed.
The bomb attack was by the Indonesian President Sukarno to display an armed confrontation against new formed federation of Malaysiaincluding Singapore. This was to display an objection over the inclusion of the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak in the new federation. The two marines were members of Indonesia’s special Operations Corps Command, now called the Marine Corps, who had been ordered to invade Singapore. Singapore became a separate country on August 9, 1965.
‘Singapore had considered this difficult chapter in the bilateral relationship closed in May 1973 when then-PM Lee Kuan Yew visited and scattered flowers on the graves of the two marines,’ stated the Singapore foreign ministry. Relations between the two countries hit a low point in the late 1990s after the fall of the Indonesian dictator Suharto, and his successor B.J. Habibie. Ties have improved in recent years under the stewardship of the Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyuno.
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