Seven of the nine parties in the Bank Century inquiry committee concluded Monday that the government’s decision to bail out the ailing bank for Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) was flawed and smacked of corruption.
The preliminary conclusions on the bailout will likely rock the coalition government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The seven parties are Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura).
The two political parties that did not see any flaw in the government’s policy were Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and one of its coalition partners, the National Awakening Party (PKB).
Committee chairman Idrus Marham of Golkar said the preliminary findings would become a basis for the final conclusion later on.
“I am sure there won’t be a significant change in the final conclusion from what parties have aired today,” he told reporters.
The conclusion is likely to put Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and former Bank Indonesia governor, Boediono, now Vice President — who authorized the bailout — in a more difficult position.
Regardless of the differences between the Democratic Party and the PKB on one hand and the rest of the parties on the other, all of the nine parties blamed the debacle on Bank Indonesia’s lack of prudence in monitoring the bank’s health.
The Democratic Party and the PKB blamed BI’s old management of slack supervision, which allowed three ailing banks — Bank Pikko, Bank Danpac and Bank CIC — to crumble and merge into Bank Century in 2004.
Democratic Party legislator Achsanul Qosasi said weak supervision was to blame for the series of blunders that allowed Bank Century to exist in the first place.
He said the global crisis forced the government to take any necessary measures to save the country’s banking system from collapsing, something that could have happened if Bank Century was left to collapse.
“We see that the policy to bail out the bank was in line with the regulation and in the spirit of good governance,” he said.
Denny Indrayana, a legal adviser to Yudhoyono, suspected the committee had a hidden political motive in putting the blame on Sri Mulyani and Boediono.
He said that behind the scenes could be businesspeople angered by the government’s aggressive move to pursue multi-trillions of rupiah in unpaid taxes.
Denny’s statement angered politicians from Yudhoyono’s coalition parties. Idrus said that Denny’s statement was full of prejudice.
“We must stop making unsubstantiated statements. We must start to argue with each other using data and facts.”
PKS lawmaker Fahri Hamzah said that Denny’s accusation was regrettable.
“If Pak Denny wants to play politics, then he should enter a party, like PKS for instance,” he said.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|