SINGAPORE -- A red dot in a sea of green. That was how former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, talking to a Singapore minister who was paying a courtesy call, once described Singapore's position among its bigger neighbors in Southeast Asia.
Habibie's contrast could not have been more striking from the ethnic angle: Singapore is a tiny Chinese-dominated island surrounded by very much larger Malay countries -- Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines -- in a turbulent region rich in natural resources in one of the world's busiest crossroads.
And when one primordial factor like race becomes intertwined with another equally salient issue like religion, a potentially dangerous situation emerges -- with disastrous consequences for all in Southeast Asia if wrongly managed.