Many people are praising the knowledge, experience and competence of Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
They feel that these two people are being unfairly targeted in the Bank Century case.
During his so-called testimony before the Bank Century inquiry committee (Pansus), Boediono kept stonewalling instead of giving facts and figures on which he had based his decision to bail out Bank Century.
Is this the attitude expected of a person who is currently the Vice President of the country and who, as the previous governor of Bank Indonesia, was directly responsible for the bailout of a bank that he and his deputies had failed to monitor and the bailout fund requirement for which, initially estimated at Rp 670 billion (US$71.6 million), exploded to Rp 6.7 trillion? Did he feel that he was not answerable to anyone?
He should have remembered that he was appointed governor of Bank Indonesia by the House of Representatives and is answerable to this institution for his actions in that position.
Sri Mulyani is reported to have informed then vice president (and acting president as President Yudhoyono was out of the country) Jusuf Kalla about the bailout decision by SMS. Is SMS the official means of communication between a minister and the vice president who is also the acting president?
Is that the established protocol for conveying such an important decision as spending more than Rp 600 billion to bailout a bank which made little or no contribution to the banking sector or to the country's economy? Did she feel that the vice president was so insignificant that he should be informed by a SMS? Has she not heard the saying that the vice president is only a heartbeat away from the presidency?
When she realized that the actual funds required to bail out Bank Century would be Rp 6.7 trillion, Sri Mulyani was reported to have complained to former vice president Jusuf Kalla that she had been fooled (or something to that extent) about the funds required to bail out Bank Century. Does this mean that this financial wizard, who people are praising so much, had not done her homework?
Perhaps if she had had a personal meeting with vice president Jusuf Kalla before the bailout decision was taken, he would have asked her some searching questions and made her do her homework.
After all he was a prominent businessman before he entered politics and so had his ear to the ground and knew what was going on where. As we know, it was Jusuf Kalla who later ordered the arrest of one of the prominent directors of Bank Century for embezzling funds.
Does this also mean that then governor of Bank Indonesia Boediono knew the actual bailout funding would be more than Rp 6 trillion but kept it to himself without discussing it with his colleagues or with the finance minister? If he knew but did not disclose or discuss it with other colleagues, including the finance minister, is that an act of honesty?
Boediono and Sri Mulyani were so busy preparing the "systemic" excuse for bailing out Bank Century that they forgot to be systematic. They did not do their homework.
They did not prepare facts and figures to find out what went wrong with Bank Century in the first place and how much money would be required to keep it afloat. They did not consider it prudent to discuss it with the vice president as the president was out of the country.
If they could not bailout a bank smoothly and seamlessly, how can they take care of the national economy which runs into thousands of trillions of rupiah? They deserve to be blamed for the fiasco.
They took the bailout decision so they have to accept the blame. As for the bailout funds, only an investigation by the police will reveal where the money went.
Rajasa
Jakarta
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