Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati finally decided to air her grievances with her old Cabinet colleague and Golkar chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, a former chief welfare minister.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Mulyani said she believed the Bank Century bailout debacle being probed by the House of Representatives’ inquiry committee was an attempt to discredit her by politicians that oppose her reform agenda, notably leaders of the Golkar Party, including Aburizal.
“Aburizal Bakrie is not happy with me, I’m not expecting anyone in Golkar to be fair or kind to me [during the inquiry],” she said.
The committee chairman is one of Aburizal’s closest aides, Idrus Marham.
Mulyani’s first open statement on Aburizal immediately sparked a reaction from Golkar’s leaders, with Idrus quickly announcing he received evidence that Mulyani’s decision to bail out the bank unlawful.
In the interview, Mulyani said the tension between her and Aburizal could be traced back to last year.
At the time, Mulyani opposed Aburizal’s call for the closure of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) to halt a nosedive in shares of Bumi Resources, partly owned by Aburizal.
Mulyani also last year imposed a travel ban on a number of coal-mining executives, including some from Aburizal’s companies, after a dispute over the companies’ reluctance to pay government fees.
In the interview Mulyani again defended the Bank Century bailout, saying she did the “right thing for the country”.
Mulyani and Vice President Boediono are considered by many as those responsible for the bailout scandal which ended up costing the state Rp 6.76 trillion (US$716.56 million), a price-tag which ended up being a lot higher than the Rp 1.3 trillion agreed on by the House.
Aburizal Bakrie JP/Arief Suhardiman
When the bailout policy was issued, Boediono was the governor of Bank Indonesia.
Aburizal has said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Boediono had to be saved “no matter what”, because they were “national symbols”.
His statement inflamed speculations that Mulyani will be scapegoated to resolve the politically-charged scandal.
Idrus, Golkar’s secretary-general, denounced Mulyani’s statement, saying Golkar’s inquiry will be wider than focusing only on her.
Idrus said Aburizal had never ordered Golkar’s lawmakers to carry out a personal vendetta against Mulyani.
He then stated that the committee had found a possible violation by Mulyani’s ministry.
“A letter from the Finance Ministry to the Supreme Audit Agency [BPK] on Nov. 16 in 2008 said that after the House refused to endorse the [2008 Financial Safety-Net] regulation-in-lieu-of-law, the institution [liquidated] the Financial System Stability Committee [KSSK],” he said.
The KSSK was a body of both the Finance Ministry and Bank Indonesia. Both Mulyani and Boediono decided to issue the bailout policy during a KSSK meeting on Nov. 21 in 2008.
A political analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), J. Kristiadi, said there was a possibility of either Boediono or Mulyani being sacrificed for the political interests of certain individuals.
Economist Faisal Basri said there was no benefit for the country if Mulyani was fired.
“This country will suffer if she steps down,” he said.
Faisal also said the push against Mulyani and Boediono was tainted with political motives and that the public should be more critical of the audit of Bank Century’s bailout conducted by the BPK.
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