Readwrotes Blog

 Rendi A. Witular and Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 05/06/2010 9:50 AM | More than six months of political bickering within President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s coalition camp has resulted in the loss of the nation’s reform-minded Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Yudhoyono announced Wednesday his approval for Mulyani’s resignation and her acceptance of  a prestigious job as one of the World Bank’s managing directors, the highest rank under World Bank president Robert Zoellick. The Indonesian stock exchange tumbled 3.8 percent Wednesday, the steepest one-day decline in 17 months after the announcement, because it remains unclear who will replace Mulyani. Mulyani, 47, will start her new job on June 1, replacing Juan Jose Daboub. She will oversee 74 nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa. “I have to convey to the people that we are losing one of our best ministers,” Yudhoy...

 Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 05/04/2010 9:48 PM | National The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) questioned Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati for six hours on Tuesday, the second time she faced the music in connection with the Bank Century bailout she authorized in November 2008. Nothing new asked by three KPK investigators as the minister had provided all documents, and audio and video files, to KPK on Nov. 30 and Dec. 11 last year, said Mulyani about the questioning process, a follow-up of the two-hour questioning process last Thursday. "It's not new. But they want to make this interactive, to verify and clarify statements, figures, other happenstances," Mulyani told a press conference after the marathon questioning. Mulyani assured that she provided the same statements to KPK as she did before the House of Representatives' inquiry committee and the Supreme Audit Agency. "All can be compared objectively and compre...

Hans David Tampobolon , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 03/06/2010 11:35 AM | Headlines The political standoff over the Bank Century bailout drags on with political parties and the House of Representatives giving the cold shoulder to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s defense of the policy. Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie met with his party’s lawmakers on Friday evening to assert his support for the legislative body’s ruling on the bailout and legal measures against those held responsible for the decision to salvage the bank. “The due process of law must continue without any political intervention, and uphold the principle of presumption of innocence,” Aburizal said while briefing Golkar lawmakers. Aburizal said the Bank Century inquiry was a long and tiring process, but it had taught the country a few lessons. “The lesson learned from the Bank Century case is that we know now that we need to improve the country’s protocol on crisis m...

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 03/06/2010 11:21 AM | Headlines One day after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono strongly defended Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, the Vice President took an offensive stance against his critics. The Vice President reminded his political opponents that democracy should not be used to bring down political competitors or adversaries. He asked them to learn from the experiences of Indonesia and other countries where excessive and short-term political desires often destroyed the goals and system of the democracy itself. “Let us not use democracy as an arena of mass mobilization and a contest of financial power,” said Boediono, in a clear reference to the street demonstrations conducted in Jakarta and other cities before and around the final sessions of the House’s inquiry committed on the Bank Century bailout scandal. Boediono also made it very clear he would not resign from his pos...

Endy M. Bayuni , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 03/05/2010 9:56 AM | Headlines President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono must feel a strong sense of betrayal after three parties in his coalition government turned their backs on him during Wednesday’s vote on the Bank Century bailout case, at the House of Representatives. Golkar, the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) joined the opposition camp to reject the November 2008 bailout, paving the way for a legal case against Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as main figures responsible for the controversial bailout decision. The vote should have been plain sailing for Yudhoyono because on paper, since the six parties in his coalition control more than three-quarters of the House seats. Instead, he suffered a 325-212 defeat, supported only by his own Democratic Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party ...

Hans David Tampubolon and Aditya Suharmoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 03/05/2010 9:30 AM | Headlines Attention turned to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President Boediono Thursday as people awaited their response on the vote of no confidence made by the House of Representatives a day earlier on the Bank Century bailout. The 325-212 vote stated that the Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716 million) bailout was unwarranted. Mulyani presented the government’s opinion on the 2008 state budget implementation. She insisted that she protected the economy based on authority she was entitled to by existing laws. “The priority in this process is the truth. “I, both personally and in my political position, try to put the truth in front,” she said. “In this case, the truth is to enforce the law to protect the society and the economy against volatility and to avoid a possible crisis.” She gave the government’s opinion before the same House who vote...

Hans David Tampubolon , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/25/2010 4:36 PM | National The House of Representatives inquiry committee on the Bank Century case looks set to submit a final report that will keep differences in the parties’ perception of the case intact. Deputy chairman of the committee, Mahfudz Siddiq from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said Thursday the final conclusion would be divided into several parts in accordance with the opinion of the respective parties' respective opinion. "Substantially, there will be no change from the previous conclusions made by each party. However, we plan to simplify our final conclusion as a committee in the form of a matrix," he told reporters at the House in Jakarta on Thursday. Separately, a committee member from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Hendrawan Supratikno, said he still hoped the committee to reach a consensus. Previously, five out of nine parties at t...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/25/2010 8:59 PM | National The government insists that the House of Representatives’ inquiry into the Bank Century bailout has no legal implication on those some political parties said were held responsible for the policy. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto said Thursday the inquiry was a political process and therefore the parties’ findings of alleged violations committed by then Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who is now the Vice President, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in the bailout policy were debatable. “It must be understood that the dynamics at [the House in] Senayan were a political, not legal, process. Debates occurred out there could not be separated from the views of the political parties,” Djoko said at the presidential office. He said the political parties had given an impression that the figures they named in their findings were alread...

Hans David Tampobolon , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 02/24/2010 9:38 AM | Headlines Two ruling coalition parties have demanded that Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati face due legal process for the policy to bail out Bank Century. This was despite last-ditch efforts to change the course of the parliamentary inquiry into the bailout. In its final report, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) accused Boediono and Mulyani of wrongdoing. “As such, we demand they face due legal process by the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and other law enforcement agencies,” PDI-P spokesman Maruarar Sirait said at a meeting of the House of Representatives’ inquiry committee into the bailout. However, the demand is far from a done deal, as the findings of the inquiry committee must be presented for approval at a plenary session of the House on March 2. In previous cases, similar inquiries have floundered at...

Pandaya , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 11/05/2009 9:54 AM | Headlines Still on the defensive from heavy attacks over the bizarre arrest of two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies, the Yudhoyono administration is bracing itself for yet another front. The budding challenge is a threat from an alliance of legislators, mostly those from political parties which refused to join Yudhoyono’s grand coalition government, to hold an inquiry into the Rp 6.7 trillion (US$699 million) in taxpayers’ money used to bail out Bank Century. In the forefront are legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who have formed their own investigative team and put the planned inquiry on its first-100-day list of priority programs. On the bandwagon are House legislators from smaller opposition parties, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) and quite a number of lawmakers from the Go...