THE awaited battle did not take place, even if a number of politicians announced their readiness to fight it out on Tuesday night last week. That night, an internal meeting of the Special Committee on the Bank Century case, produced nothing significant. The plan to discuss the conclusions of the committee’s investigation was cancelled, and the much-awaited results could not be released to the public.

A week earlier, the Special Committee Chairman, Golkar Party politician Idrus Marham, had announced the committee’s plan to release their provisional conclusions. The public, he said, needed to be given whatever information the committee had found by questioning scores of witnesses and experts over the past two months. This idea was supported by Hanura Party faction member Akbar Faisal. “The interim conclusions of the Special Committee will be reported in a Plenary Session o the House of Representatives (DPR),” he added.

In addition to raising political tensions, there was actually a hidden agenda: mapping out the positions of the friendly as well as adversarial camps. “We need to know in what direction the committee’s investigation is moving, so we don’t suspect one another,” said Golkar Party senior official, Akbar Tandjung, two weeks ago. By knowing what each faction thinks about the facts unearthed by the Special Committee, Akbar hopes that the public will be able to get an idea on the results of the hearings.

However, many people were disappointed on Tuesday night last week. “That night, the motion to publicize the temporary conclusions came only from the Hanura faction,” said United Development Party (PPP) member, M. Romahurmuzy. Golkar, which had insisted that the results—albeit provisional—should be announced, suddenly became tame. The other political factions just kept quiet.

That night, the Special Committee listened to the explanations of their team of experts on the findings. At the end of the meeting, everyone agreed that the findings were still too premature to draw any conclusions. “Moreover, there is data and documents which the Finance Minister and Bank Indonesia have yet to submit,” said Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) committee member, Eva Kusuma Sundari.

So the battle that night was called off, even though the Democrat Party faction had geared itself up for a fight. From the outset they had not wanted the Special Committee to make any interim conclusions. Interestingly, support for this stance came from the opposition camp. In addition to the PDI-P faction, the Gerindra Party faction also agreed. “If the conclusions are not ready to be released, it would give a bad impression,” said Gerindra member Ahmad Muzani, who is part of the Special Committee. “People would think we are sending a signal to start negotiating,” he said.

Such negotiations have become the talk of many people in the legislature. As one politician said, “The political stage for the Special Committee is over. Now it’s time for negotiations behind the scenes.” The political map has changed. The parties left facing-off in the arena are the Democrat Party versus the Golkar Party and the PDI-P against the Justice & Prosperity Party (PKS). The other factions have stepped aside and are waiting on the sidelines.

“We are going to wait and see what kind of deal they make,” said one politician on the Special Committee who is from a political party with only a few members in the legislature. “It’s pointless to join the shouting match now. Later the result could shift to the right or the left,” they griped.

News of negotiations to end the task of the Bank Century Special Committee was widely reported three weeks ago. It began with the news of a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, in early January. Reportedly, the two committed themselves to resolve the Bank Century mess by making Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati the scapegoat. Despite denials, the impression that the political parties are ready to negotiate to end the work of the Special Committee has been unavoidable.

“The parties are after power,” said a Tempo source in the Special Committee. Because the cabinet positions have already been filled, the remaining targets are Echelon I positions in the departments and commissioner positions in state-owned enterprises. “Do the Democrat Party and SBY think they can monopolize all the positions?” they asked. In order to strengthen their bargaining positions, Golkar and Democrat Party politicians are seeking various approaches in order to interest other factions in joining them.

The issue has divided the DPR into three major party groupings. The first group is sure there was nothing wrong with the policy to bail out Bank Century. They feel that Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono are clean of the charge of abusing their authority. “There are no indications of criminal action, administrative error or corruption,” said Benny K. Harman, a Democrat Party politician, who is a leader in this camp. “What we found was a decision-making process done at a critical time, which was very transparent, accountable and participatory.”

The second group feels that there are indications of administrative and criminal violations committed by Sri Mulyani and Boediono; however, they believe that those violations were not motivated by corruption or a conflict of interest. “They were tricked by their own subordinates,” said PPP faction member, M. Romahurmuzy. Because they were not motivated by corruption—according to this camp—the two technocrats should not be removed from office.

The final group is the hardliners. They believe Sri Mulyani and Boediono are guilty in the Bank Century case. They believe Sri Mulyani is guilty because she approved changing the status of Bank Century to that of a failed bank, creating a systemic impact, while the criteria for determining a systemic impact—according to this camp—was unclear.

It was, according to this group, a move by Sri Mulyani which became the basis for the release of Rp6.7 trillion in funds from the Savings Guarantee Board (LPS), benefitting the bank. These trillions allegedly leaked in many directions, including being siphoned off by the bank’s owner, Robert Tantular. “This bank was robbed, and the losses were covered by state funds,” said Akbar Faisal, a Hanura politician, one of the supporters of this camp.

Boediono is perceived to be guilty of changing the regulations at Bank Indonesia on the criteria for receiving the Short-Term Funding Facility (FPJP) to help Bank Century. People say he should have done a due diligence on Bank Century before releasing the bailout funds—including the FPJP and temporary capital investment. “Boediono was involved and signed off on the regulation changes, even though the Bank Indonesia Director of Supervision pointed out that Bank Century was not worthy of receiving assistance,” said PDI-P member Hendrawan Supratikno.

In the DPR, some have clarified their positions on this issue, while others have not. Ahmad Farhan Hamid, a senior politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, confirmed that his party will follow the Democrat Party in the first group. “We go with the realistic camp,” he said. Farhan is the main supporter of PAN Party Chairman Hatta Rajasa.

The PKS has taken a different position by joining the third group. This alignment became clearer on Wednesday last week when their faction released their temporary conclusions. PKS faction member Andi Rahmat said there are four state institutions which must be responsible for the Bank Century bailout process. “[They are] the Coordination Committee, the Financial Sector Stability Committee (KKSK), Bank Indonesia and LPS,” said Andi. PKS also found 18 indications of criminal violation.

Another Islamic political party, the United Development Party (PPP), stands in the middle. In their final conclusion, this faction will only point out which institutions must take responsibility. They will not openly charge any particular officials, such as Sri Mulyani or Boediono. “That is for the legal authorities to do,” said M. Romahurmuzy, a PPP member in the Special Committee. “We are not judges,” he said.

Political stances in the three largest factions: the Democrat Party, Golkar, and PDI-P, are split. The Democrat Party stands in the first group, while the PDI-P, as the opposition party, stands in the third group.

What about Golkar? On paper, this party is a part of the coalition which supports the government. However, in the Bank Century case, the party has a foot in each of two camps. Party elites in the central executive board have repeatedly emphasized their support of the government, but their members in the legislature continue to attack the policy on Bank Century.

Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, spokesman for Golkar Party Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, refuted reports that their party was playing a double political role. “Golkar’s stance has not changed. It is still against impeachment and is not attacking individuals,” said Lalu on Friday last week.

A day earlier, the Golkar faction released their interim findings. Bambang Soesatyo, Golkar’s “champion” in the Special Committee, emphasized that Golkar’s conclusions are no different than the findings of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK). “Laws were broken, there was manipulation, and there was an abuse of authority and position, leading to state losses,” said Bambang. “There were at least 58 mistakes.”

As for the guilty party, “In granting short-term lending and the bailout, it was the Financial Sector Stability Committee [who must be at fault],” said Azis Syamsuddin, another Golkar member in the Special Committee. The Stability Committee members meant here only two people: Sri Mulyani and Boediono.

With this mapping of political camps, it is not difficult to guess how the Bank Century Special Committee will end up. A battle will place the camps for and against the bailout in the final meeting to determine the recommendation of the Special Committee. It is predicted that the Democrat Party camp will be defeated. The number of votes in the government coalition—minus Golkar and PKS—will not be enough to make it. They only have 14 of the total 30 votes. “We are aware of this and because of this we are going to ask for a letter of objection. Our objections must be noted,” said Democrat Party member Benny K. Harman.

The next battle will likely take place in a plenary session, where the decision to accept or not the recommendation of the Special Committee will be made. Here, once again, the Democrat camp will likely encounter problems. Without the support of Golkar and PKS, they will not have enough votes to stop the hardliners. They only have 259 of the total 560 votes in the DPR.

The importance of the Golkar and PKS votes within the coalition is finally dawning on top officials in the two factions. For this reason, last week they sent out signals that they were ready to negotiate. Golkar, according to a Tempo source, wants the suspected tax violations which the Finance Department is leveling against some Bakrie-owned companies to the tune of Rp2 trillion to be “resolved nicely.” If the Democrat Party is willing to grant this request, Golkar will back off and soften its position.

The Democrat Party picked up on that signal. Last week, Achsanul Qosasi, a Democrat Party member in the DPR Finance Commission, who is also a member of the Bank Century Special Committee, came up with the idea to form a working committee to investigate the suspected tax violations of a number of companies. “This committee was formed in the middle of this week,” he said. This working committee will summon leaders of companies which violated tax regulations and urge them to meet their obligations.

Even though Achsanul denied any connection between the formation of this tax abuse working committee with developments in the Bank Century Special Committee, there was a discernable fighting mood. Lalu Mara, who is Aburizal’s spokesman as well as Deputy Secretary-General of Golkar, regretted this development. “Why is the tax case being politicized?” he said. He stressed that all of Bakrie’s companies are open companies managed by professionals. “It is dangerous to bring macroeconomic issues like tax disputes into the political realm,” he said.

With signs of a battle brewing between the Democrat Party and Golkar, PDI-P is now making a calculated retreat. “We do not want to get caught up in this game,” said one PDI-P member. “We are just focusing on getting to the bottom of this Bank Century case,” they said.

Through it all, the Democrat Party remains confident. They feel they have the trump card. In order to impeach Boediono, the legislature must enact the right to an opinion, the discussion of which must be attended by at least 75 percent of DPR members. “Our faction alone is already 26 percent,” said Benny Harman. “Even on our own, we can block them,” he said. The Democrat Party is also being steadfast over Sri Mulyani. “If there is a recommendation that a minister be fired, that is a vote of no-confidence by the legislature,” said Benny. “Such a thing is unknown in a presidential system.”

Wahyu Dhyatmika, Agus Supriyanto, Amirullah

Bank Century—The Hot Potato

THE inquiry into Bank Century is coming to an end. Someone is likely to get burnt if the attacking team manages to get Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani removed from office. Here is the process which they must go through to succeed.

MEETING TO DETERMINE THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE BANK CENTURY SPECIAL COMMITTEE »