Seldom do we talk about ourselves in this column, but circumstances have forced us to do so since we are part of the headline.
On Monday we carried news about the possibility of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono replacing his Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as an upshot of the prolonged 2008 Bank Century bailout case.
The news spread like a wildfire after it was picked up by local and foreign media outlets. It is not surprising since the minister is seen as a reform icon in Indonesia's murky sky of law enforcement, and many would lament her dismissal.
A close aide to the President denied Monday that there had been a meeting between Yudhoyono and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie agreeing to replace Mulyani with Fiscal Policy Agency head Anggito Abumanyu. "The President has the right to talk with anyone, but there is no talk of a reshuffle," State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said.
Similar denials were made by presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, Aburizal's spokesman Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto.
The news carries more weight as Yudhoyono is approaching his first 100 days in office, fresh from his re-election. Speculation about the imminent replacement of the minister, deemed the most responsible for the controversial Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) bailout, have been in the air for some time.
On Tuesday, the President himself denied the report, dismissing it as "poor fiction". "This is dirty politics. Maybe they're trying to play off the finance minister and the President. It was said I would replace her with someone with the initials AA. I don't know who AA is," Yudhoyono was reported as saying on Wednesday.
There has been a speculation that some of the bailout funds may have gone to Yudhoyono's presidential election campaign team. Whether the news about Mulyani was inaccurate or counterproductive, as some have suggested, will be seen in the coming days.
After all, most of the news responses have come from politicians, a class of people whose statements should be taken with a grain of salt.
Critics said the scandal has sapped too much time and energy from the state. The inquiry committee of the House of Representatives has summoned countless experts and its hearings are broadcast live every day and night. And the prolonged probe has seen many pressing national issues left untouched.
Yudhoyono is seemingly unaware of this, as reflected in his comments made in the Bogor Presidential Palace on Thursday following his meeting with coordinating ministers and heads of state agencies.
Still, one can be forgiven for thinking that as President he has the power to make decisions to speed up the investigations rather than let it dog his government.
The Mulyani story overshadowed at least two other important events this week. They were the summoning of top officials by Yudhoyono to Bogor Palace and a series of bank scams affecting at least 200 customers of six banks, and causing US$50,000 losses.
The first event was partly related to the Bank Century case. Yudhoyono said mistakes committed by policy makers could not be punished politically. In a veiled warning to those who would like to exploit the inquiry committee to impeach him, Yudhoyono said there should not be any other political "complications" in the bailout aside from allowing people to learn about how the bailout decision was made.
"We have chosen the presidential cabinet system, not the parliamentary cabinet system that allows parliament to raise the motion of no confidence so the cabinet can go up and down, and ministers can fall.
"The soul is not there. The President can't dismiss the House, the Assembly or the DPD. But there is no culture of votes of no confidence in the parliamentary system," he said in a press conference after a four-hour meeting with the top officials.
Policymaking is an intrinsic part of government officials' work, he said.
There have been calls for the committee to summon Yudhoyono to see whether or not he can be impeached over the bailout decision.
A member of the inquiry committee sought to differ from the President. Eva Kusuma Sundari from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the decision to bail out Century should be punishable by political sanctions, Koran Tempo reported Friday.
Top officials attending the Bogor meeting included People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Taufik Kiemas, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie, House of Regional Representatives Speaker Irman Gusman, Supreme Court chief justice Harifin Tumpa, Constitutional Court chief Mahfud M.D., Judicial Commission chairman Busyro Muqoddas and Supreme Audit Agency chief Hadi Purnomo.
Also present were Cabinet members Hatta Rajasa, Agung Laksono, Djoko Suyanto and Sudi Silalahi.
Apart from politics, the nation witnessed a shocking bank fraud this week. The first case surfaced Wednesday in Bali when dozens of customers of six banks reported the loss of savings. The scam later spread to Jakarta. Police said the perpetrators may have used a scanning device attached to ATMs, which recorded personal data from their cards.
The six banks affected included Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Permata and Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII).
- Harry Bhaskara
