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Medan (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government should always pro actively protect the dignity of the Indonesian nation and its citizens in the eyes of the international community and not tolerate acts of harassment such as Singaporean authorities committed against two Indonesians at Changi airport on Thursday, an academic said.

Prof Dr Suhaidi SH, an international law expert at North Sumatra University (USU), was commenting on the detention for more than two hours of senior Indonesian lawyers Adnan Buyung Nasution and Abdul Rahman Saleh by Singaporean authorities at Changi airport on Thursday night (March 20).

"The Singaporean authorities action in detaining and interrogating Presidential Advisory Council (Watipres) Member Adnan Buyung Nasution and former attorney general Abdul Rahman Saleh is outrageous. They were treated as if they had done something wrong," Suhaidi said here Saturday.

The two Indonesian law figures left Jakarta on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Singapore at around 20.00 local time. But soon after arrival at Changi airport, they were approached by officers in military uniform, taken to an immigration office and questioned for more than two hours.

Suhaidi said having one`s passport inspected by immigration on entering another country was something normal but what Nasution and Saleh experienced was "not normal, it was excessive...with the questions put to them encroaching on their privacy. It was really a very regrettable incident."

"The officers showed a naugthy attitude and seemed to lack any appreciation for visitors," Suhaidi said.

He said when one looked back at the history of Indonesia-Singapore relations in the post-reform era, one could see that Singapore had been repeatedly pestering Indonesia in public or state-to-state as well as individual matters.

"Singapore always tries to make Indonesia bow to its wishes," he said. "The Indonesian government should be careful in dealing with Singapore so as not to fall into the traps of the city state`s interests," Suhaidi added. (*)

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