Thursday, September 02, 2010 22:24 PM
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Legislators should retain their professionalism and put aside their personal differences with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati amid growing conflict over the Bank Century case, say analysts.
The House of Representatives’ budget commission chairman Hari Azhar Azis, from the Golkar Party, told The Jakarta Post Tuesday that some lawmakers had threatened to boycott future meetings with the finance minister.
The lawmakers believe Mulyani was responsible for the Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) Bank Century bailout, which was declared illegal by a House plenary meeting last month.
The minister is scheduled to discuss the revision of the 2010 state budget with the House budgeting committee next month.
House speaker Marzuki Ali from the Democratic Party, deplored the planned boycott. He said the state budget was an important issue for the state and the public, while Mulyani has said the lawmakers’ plan would be self-defeating.
Legal expert Irmanputra, said the House should not use the bailout issue to justify a boycott of the executive.
“A boycott will do nothing good for our country. Every single state institution must be committed to doing its job for the greater good. The willingness to do so is the real definition of statesmanship,” said Irmanputra on the sidelines of a discussion on the bailout controversy.
Aviliani, an economist at the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), told a discussion at the House in Jakarta on Wednesday that the legislators had to move on and should not be held hostage by the bailout issue.
“The House must start paying more attention to other issues, such as deliberating crucial bills,” she said.
“Economy related bills, such as the financial safety net (JPSK) bill and the financial services authority (OJK) bill, must be deliberated as soon as possible.
“Those bills are important, because there is a possibility that another economic crisis could hit Indonesia,” said Aviliani.
“If those bills are not endorsed into law, then what kind of basis can the government use to face a crisis should one arrive?”
Meanwhile, a political analyst from Charta Politika, Yunarto Wijaya, said the country had learned a lot from the Bank Century case, which he said was conducted very openly.
“The investigation actually revealed there was a severe abuse of power in both the executive and legislative arms in our state system,” he said.
“President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he took full responsibility for the case as the ‘head of the state’, not as the ‘head of the government’.”
Yunarto argued that by the President declaring responsibility as the head of state, he was actually trying to escape any possible constitutional implication against him.
“And it seemed the legislators degraded the true value of an inquiry committee. If the House only wanted to probe the decision makers, why did they establish an inquiry committee in the first place?”
Yunarto said that with all the oddities, it was natural for the public to question the integrity of both the government and the House at the same time.
“So, let’s use this case as an important lesson to fix the state system for the sake of the future,” he said.
