On his first state visit to Singapore, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto was strikingly candid: he had “copied with pride” his neighbour’s approach to housing and investment, he said – presenting the city state as a model for his own government’s ambitious development agenda.
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But chasing Singapore’s success risks overlooking the deeper reforms Indonesia must tackle to make such policies work at home, analysts say.
The remarks came [earlier this week for online as Prabowo met President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and held talks with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during the two nations’ annual leaders’ retreat.
Prabowo, who spent part of his childhood in Singapore “when it was still a British colony”, spoke openly of his admiration for the city state’s transformation and its founding leadership.
“To be very frank, I’ve always admired the success of Singapore and especially the success of the early leaders of Singapore, their leadership, statesmanship,” he said at a joint press conference with Wong on Monday.
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The Indonesian leader has long praised Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. At his memorial service in 2015, Prabowo said Lee’s greatest legacy was “creating a system that has succeeded in creating a meritocracy and in grooming two or three generations of good leaders”.
