Readwrotes Blog

  The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 05/07/2010 7:58 PM | National

 Hans David Tampobolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 05/07/2010 9:30 AM Political tension between the government and the House of Representatives will likely cool off following the departure of Sri Mulyani Indrawati from her post of finance minister, politicians say. Mulyani will start her new job as a World Bank managing director on June 1, having endured months of political pressure to remove her from her ministerial post for her hand in approving the 2008 Bank Century bailout, which the House deemed flawed. Golkar Party deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso said Thursday his party could  “freeze” the political process against Mulyani following her resignation. “However, the legal process must continue. Golkar will simply wait and see what happens next,” said Priyo, who is also the House deputy speaker. However, he rejected speculation that Golkar chairman Aburizal “Ical” Bakrie had influenced Mulyani’s departure. “Pak Ical has had many personal meetings...

 | Fri, 05/07/2010 9:26 AM | readers forum The announcement that Sri Mulyani Indrawati is to leave her post as finance minister and take up a senior position with the World Bank gives rise to the inevitable question of did she jump or was she pushed? As the evidence seems to strongly suggest the latter, the follow-up question becomes what implications does Sri Mulyani’s apparently less-than-voluntary departure, from one of the most important and influential positions in the Indonesian government to a prestigious but far less influential position at the World Bank, have for the reform movement in Indonesia? Given Sri Mulyani’s leading role in trying to develop more efficient and transparent government institutions in Indonesia as well as her much publicized confrontations with numerous vested interests in the DPR and the private sector, one must be tempted to see Sri Mulyani as, ultimately, being a casualty in the ongoing struggle to contain, if not neutralize, the i...

 Heru Prama Yuda, Yogyakarta | Fri, 05/07/2010 8:57 AM | Opinion Indonesia’s global image is once again under the media spotlight after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a nod Wednesday to Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s resignation as finance minister and her acceptance as a World Bank managing director, in which she will be assigned to oversee 74 nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa. This stimulates opinion of support for Sri Mulyani, who has been under harsh criticism from opposition camp members of the House of Representatives investigating the Bank Century bailout case. The support psychologically shapes the belief that “our minister of finance is one of the best in the world”, but why does she encounter difficult times in her own country? Once again it adds to the notion that the Republic has failed to give credit to one of its prominent figures; in remembrance of former president B.J. Habibie...

 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...