JAKARTA, April 16 — The Commander-in-Chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces has apologised — the first time a senior Indonesian official has done so — over the naming of an Indonesian warship after two marines who carried out the bombing of MacDonald House in Singapore in 1965.

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia that was aired yesterday, General Moeldoko said: “I apologise. We have no ill intent whatsoever to stir emotions. Not at all.”

However, he stressed that the name of the frigate, Usman Harun, will remain — a decision he said the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) had made in December 2012 after a long process.

The episode — which caused a diplomatic row between the two countries — has been a learning process, he said.

Nevertheless, he is confident that future ties between the two militaries would grow even stronger.

Adding that relations between Singapore and Indonesia are on the mend, Gen Moeldoko said: “There have been communications among leaders. Singapore’s Chief of Defence and I have spoken.”

Usman Mohamed Ali and Harun Said were the marines who carried out the MacDonald House bombing, as part of former President Sukarno’s Konfrontasi campaign.

Three people were killed and 33 injured in the attack.

Gen Moeldoko said the TNI had not foreseen that the naming of the warship would spark an emotional reaction from Singapore.

He said: “Indonesia didn’t think that ‘Usman Harun’ would eventually turn into a polemic such as this. Why? It’s because from the onset we did not have the tendency to stir emotions of the past. Not at all.

“However, there are sensitivities that we did not foresee and it escalated. It is my responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief of the TNI to offer clarification and to take steps to ensure that the situation does not escalate.”

The row between the two countries saw several Singapore Cabinet ministers expressing their concerns with their Jakarta counterparts.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa had assured Singapore that Jakarta meant no ill will or malice — a move that was welcomed by his Singapore counterpart, Mr K Shanmugam.

But in March, Indonesian marines dressed as Usman and Harun were spotted at the Jakarta International Defence Dialogue. It prompted the Singapore delegation to withdraw from the event.

Gen Moeldoko said he had since taken steps to de-escalate the situation and normalise ties between TNI and the Singapore Armed Forces, including inviting Singapore to take part in a multilateral exercise earlier this year.

He said: “We gave the opportunity to our Singaporean counterparts to join 17 other countries in the Komodo Exercise.

“To me, it was a very positive step by us towards rebuilding ties.”

He is confident that ties between the two armed forces would continue to be strong and based on mutual trust, respect and honesty.

Gen Moeldoko said: “As long as we are able to maintain trust and honesty between us, I believe relations can proceed well.

“I am confident future prospects will be good because we are part of an ASEAN community that has common needs, common interests that I believe makes it easier for strong ties to be rebuilt.” — Today