Golkar investigator refuses to be directed by party

A member of the Bank Century bailout scandal inquiry committee at the House of Representatives, Bambang Soesatyo from the Golkar Party, says he will not let his party or its chairman disrupt his independence in probing the scandal.

"The chairman and the faction chairman of my party have given me warnings about my recent decision to publicly announce about the recording, which allegedly put Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and Bank Century former owner, Robert Tantular, in a conversation," he told reporters at the House in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"They say that I was being too hasty in releasing the sensitive recording. However, I told them that the recording was something very important obtained by our investigating team. I also want to say that if I feel interfered with, then I will resign from the committee immediately," he said.

The Finance Ministry had said that the dialog was not between Mulyani with Robert, but with Marsilam Simanjuntak.

The conversation took place in a meeting in which the Finance Ministry agreed with Bank Indonesia to salvage the ailing bank with the controversial Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716.56 million) bailout.

The bailout amount was a lot higher than the amount agreed by the House, ranged between Rp 600 billion and Rp 1 trillion.