The Golkar Party has accused Democratic Party politicians criticizing its firm stance in the handling of the Bank Century bailout case as betrayers, an epithet earlier used by a lawmaker from the Democratic Party itself.
Bambang Soesetyo, a Golkar Party lawmaker joining the House of Representatives’ special committee on the Bank Century case, said here Friday that the thorough investigation of the alleged scandal of the bailout was an objective his party shared with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, chief patron of the Democratic Party.
Bambang Soesetyo was speaking in response to statements from Ruhut Sitompul, a Democratic Party lawmaker who is also a member of the special committee.
Ruhut told The Jakarta Post reporters at the House’s Tuesday questioning of Vice President Boediono in connection with the case that he felt sad seeing his party being “betrayed” by some of its coalition partners.
Rumors soon sparked that the “betraying” coalition partners are the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), some of whose politicians threw barbed questions at Boediono during the inquiry.
“The betrayers are those who try to cover up the case. We, coalition partners, have done what was wanted by Pak SBY (President Yudhoyono), i.e. looking thoroughly into the case,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview.
“We don’t care about being called a betrayer by the Democratic Party, as long as the people don’t call us so,” he added.
Separately, deputy secretary-general of the PKS Fachry Hamzah said his party would ignore Ruhut’s remarks, since this was not an official statement of the Democratic Party.
“Pak SBY hasn’t made any official statement regarding the issue,” Fachry said.
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