Century inquiry ‘may not reach’ consensus

The gift of irony: Bouquets of flowers are laid in front House of Representatives’ Bank Century bailout inquiry committee members (from left) Maruarar Sirait, Hendrawan Sutikno and Akbar Faisal, on Wednesday. The bouquets were given by the Civil Society Coalition for Anticorruption Concern (Kompak) to criticize the team ahead of its final report. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama

The politically divided inquiry team into the Bank Century bailout is unlikely to agree on a unanimous conclusion to be presented at a plenary session of parliament next month, a legislator says.

Andi Rahmat, a committee member from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said Wednesday he was pessimistic that a consensus on the Century case could be achieved by the many parties making up
the team.

“The differences between us and those who say the bailout was legit are hard to reconcile because both sides are taking different fundamental approaches to the case,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Should the committee fail to produce a unanimous recommendation, then a compilation of the parties’ findings would have to be presented at the plenary session of the House of Representatives, Andi said.

In previous instances where a House inquiry team had been formed, the teams had successfully agreed on a single conclusion.

Committee chairman Idrus Marham, from the Golkar Party, called on legislators to try to reach a consensus for the committee’s final recommendations.

“We’re going to have a meeting at the Jakarta Sultan Hotel at 9 p.m.,” he said.

“It’s a closed-door meeting to be headed by Mahfudz Siddiq [committee deputy chairman from the PKS].

“We’ll compile all the parties’ findings, and hopefully we’ll be able to announce our final conclusion on the case at 10 a.m. tomorrow.”

On Tuesday evening, four of nine parties at the House — President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) — said the bailout, authorized in November 2008 by Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, was necessary to prevent an economic crisis.

Meanwhile, the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the PKS, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) said the bailout was unwarranted.

They recommended that the people deemed most responsible for the Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) bailout face due legal process.

Golkar and the PKS, the Democratic Party’s two biggest coalition partners, criticized Boediono and Mulyani’s handling of the bailout.

Both parties said they would stick to their decision.

“If we wanted to change our mind, we’d have done it yesterday,” Andi said.

Senior Golkar member Priyo Budi Santoso, a House deputy speaker, said his party had gone to the “point of no return”.

“As a party we’ve chosen to place greater concern on our dignity than to bow down for non-technical reasons,” he said.

He added the party was not worried about having its decision — to deem the bailout flawed — shouted down if the final recommendation had to be put to a vote.

The Democratic Party’s Ruhut Sitompul said Golkar and the PKS had disrespected his party with their opposing stance on Century.

“Golkar is still not showing its true colors, while having the PKS in our coalition is like having a baby tiger,” he said.

“If it was up to me, I’d have kicked the PKS out of the coalition.”