“The investigation into the case (Bank Century bailout scandal) has uncovered many violations. Ignoring the key issue will be useless. This case is like an elephant in a room, that no one can ignore,” Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) legislator Muhammad Misbakhun said last month as quoted by this newspaper.

Ironically, Misbakhun, one of the nine legislators who called for a House of Representatives’ inquiry committee to probe the bailout, clearly did not see – or pretended not to see – the giant animal that was right in front of him.

Misbakhun was right to equate the bank’s Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) bailout to a pachyderm, given that it involved a huge sum of money and lots of high-ranking officials.

He was also right when he strongly criticized the results of the Supreme Audit Agency’s (BPK) audit of the bailout, which failed to clarify the flows of the bailout fund.

But it is hard to believe that Misbakhun did not realize that he – according to the official version from the BPK – had improperly obtained a $22.5 million loan from Bank Century, which issued a letter of credit (L/C) to his company, PT Selalang Prima Internasional.

The information was recently leaked to the public by a close confidante of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It was natural that Misbakhun defended his innocence, saying he had obtained the loan in a professional and legal manner. He admitted having failed to make some payments on time, which forced the bank to restructure the loan.

By law, only the court has the right to judge guilt, and the law also applies to Misbakhun. But he knows full well this is not simply a matter of legality, but also morality. Even if he did nothing wrong in securing the loan from the bank, he should have disclosed earlier that his company was among the bank’s debtors.

To avoid a conflict of interests, he should not have insinuated himself into the establishment of the  House inquiry committee. As a respected House member, Misbakhun has the constitutional obligation to lay bare the Century issue before the public.

But why did not he lay bare his own link from the very beginning? Thanks to the leaked report, the public is now aware that one of the House’s inquiry starters and a strong critic of the BPK audit also received money from the troubled bank, which has since been renamed Bank Mutiara.

We fully agree with the demand by House members – and shared by millions of Indonesians – that the truth behind the bailout be revealed and those found guilty in the case taken to court.

We also support any efforts to bring to justice those responsible or involved in the massive manipulation, fraud, corruption and other wrongdoing that brought Century to its knees in 2008. This includes the owners and executives of the bank, Bank Indonesia officials who failed to tho-roughly supervise the country’s banking industry, as well as irresponsible borrowers at the problem bank.

Still, the moral of Misbakhun’s story is this: You must also see the elephant in the room in which you are in.

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