Coalition ‘depends on Democratic Party’

Parties in alliance with the Democratic Party remain confident that the coalition will not collapse because of their differences on the Bank Century scandal.

They said Tuesday that the only thing which can break the coalition is the Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

They argued that the idea to reshuffle the Cabinet was a mere bluff to tame coalition parties (other than the Democratic Party) over their persistence on the current inquiry into the Bank Century bailout scandal. They said the inquiry was necessary to help the government promote clean governance.

“We never intend to leave the coalition and we believe the coalition will remain intact unless the Democratic Party wants to break it up,” legislator Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told The Jakarta Post.

He added that from the outset, the coalition was formed with the intention to promote a good governance.

“The investigation into the Bank Century scandal is only one way to achieve the goal. Thus, there is no relation between the Bank Century affair and the coalition or Cabinet reshuffle,” he said.

He accused certain figures in the Democratic Party of trying to tame outspoken politicians from coalition parties by raising the Cabinet reshuffle issue.   

“It is the maneuver of certain figures in the Democratic Party who have the ambition to be Cabinet ministers or party chairman in the upcoming [Democratic Party] national congress,” he said.

Parties in Yudhoyono’s coalition government are the Golkar Party, PKS, National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP), National Awakening Party (PKB) and Democratic Party.

Only the PKB and the Democratic Party support the bailout.

The scandal is about a bailout that soared tenfold to Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) from its original estimate.

Democratic Party secretary-general Amir Syamsuddin said that his party held no grudge at all against its coalition partners that have taken a different stance on Bank Century bailout case.

“We just hope the inquiry committee is willing to summons and listen to people from the banking industry to obtain a balanced perception about the case,” he said.

PKS considered former Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, now Vice President, as the one most responsible for the bailout scandal.

“Eighty percent of the responsibility should be laid on Boediono, while the other 20 percent on [Finance Minister] Sri Mulyani,” PKS executive and deputy chairman of House inquiry team Mahfudz Siddiq, told The Post.

Mahfudz added that Boediono had to be held the most accountable because investigation conducted by the committee found that the case had stemmed from Bank Indonesia’s lack of prudence in monitoring Bank Century.

Mahfudz, however, said his party found no reasons to implicate President Yudhoyono in the case.

A legislator from the Golkar Party, Melchias M. Mekeng, said that the coalition parties should change their mind-set on the goals of coalition.

“It is very narrow-minded if any politician says that Bank Century would impact on the coalition,” he said. “It is also not wise to reshuffle the Cabinet just because of Bank Century debacle.”

A preliminary report of the fact-finding team from the Environment Ministry showed that most of small-scale coal mining firms did not have the necessary environmental impact analysis (Amdal) documents, while the a number of big companies failed to restore the mining sites.

The 2009 Environment Law grants the environment minister the authority to revoke business permits in order to improve the country’s environmental conditions.