T

he Jakarta Corruption Court'€™s decision on Wednesday to sentence Budi Mulya, a former deputy governor of Bank Indonesia (BI), to 10 years in prison for his involvement in the November 2008 Financial System Stability Committee move to bail out Bank Century (now Bank Mutiara) will have a damaging impact on policy making.

This is not to say we commend the process, circumstances or manner in which the bailout decision was made by the committee, which included then finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (now a managing director at the World Bank in Washington) and the central bank'€™s board of governors led by Boediono (now the vice president).

In fact, as testimonies during the court proceedings and records from the committee'€™s meetings in late 2008 later showed, the decision was made on the basis of inadequate and inaccurate data on Bank Century'€™s condition provided by BI managers.

This process confirmed the shoddy and venal nature of BI'€™s bank supervision mechanism. Worse still, the fallout from the global financial crisis at that time put severe pressures on Indonesia'€™s banking industry.

But we beg to differ with the court'€™s judges, who stated the decision to bail out Bank Century was made in bad faith and was motivated by corruption.

Instead, we are still convinced that the decision was made with the honest intention to prevent a crisis in the banking sector, as dozens of midsize banks then suffered severe liquidity shortages and the interbank market virtually dried up.

Tough decisions are complex admixtures of facts and values, especially in a critical situation when things quickly change, even by the hour.

If the bailout policy is legally considered an act of corruption, then it should have been Sri Mulyani and Boediono in the courtroom, as both were the leaders of the committee. Budi was only a member of the committee in his capacity as a BI deputy governor.

In fact, the verdict means all seven members of the BI board of governors in 2008 should be brought to court. They included Muliaman Darmansyah Hadad, the current chairman of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), which took over banking supervision from BI early this year.

We do believe Budi was rightfully punished for his unethical borrowing of Rp 1 billion (US$85,570) from Robert Tantular, former owner of Bank Century; but not for his involvement in the bailout decision.

The verdict could destroy the capacity and morale of policy decision making within the government.

If the court or politicians can dispute or attack a policy judgment made in good faith and in full compliance with proper procedures, no senior officials in the future will be willing or have the courage to make any economic or financial decisions, no matter how imperative they may be.