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The Indonesian ambassador to Singapore has been recalled after just 18 months on the job. Financial irregularities are under investigation.
If you wonder why Singapore could be so clean and appear so sterile, then you ought to go into a building on Chatsworth Road to get an alternative view. Once inside, you can see cigarette butts litter the building. The water pipes are clogged. The wallpaper is peeling off. In this unpleasant surrounding lies a canteen where workers in the office building usually have their lunch. Inevitably the stink of the place would sometimes mingle with the aroma of the food served.
This is no slum or migrant workers dormitory. It's the Indonesian embassy, which resembles a tumbledown shack amid the skyscrapers and parks of this extremely clean city-state. Several areas are badly in need of repair. "There is no money to replace them," said an embassy staff member. Could it be true that the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no means to maintain the chancery building in one of its most important diplomatic outposts?
If we take into account a report from the State Audit Agency (BPK), the comment of the staff member is...