Crack open the bank scandal

Attempts to shed light on the controversial bailout of a private bank got a minor boost Tuesday after legislators asked a plenary session to set up a special inquiry committee.
The massive bailout of Bank Century has baffled the public. How could the government bail out an ailing middle-sized bank to the tune of Rp 6.76 trillion (US$700 million), more than 10 times the initial figure of Rp 632 billion.


The people have been kept in the dark about how their money was spent in the case that first surfaced late last year.
The petition for the inquiry will still be submitted to the House of Representatives’ consultative committee before it can be endorsed at another plenary session.
The reading out of the petition almost failed since House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party and who was not present at the session, was against it.
The fact that the Democratic Party is the only one in the House opposed to any inquiry into the bank is indicative of the government’s stance.
The supersized bailout is closely linked to attempts to undermine the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). A hearing at the Constitutional Court last week revealed an alleged plot by the National Police and the Attorney General’s Office to frame KPK leaders.
One reason was that a top police general had been wiretapped by the KPK allegedly asking for a fee to salvage a client’s deposit in the ailing bank.
The attack on the antigraft body has been largely seen as retaliation by the two top law enforcement institutions, whose unscrupulous leaders have not been spared by the KPK.
It is ironic if the very success of the KPK in clamping down on corrupt officials should see their wings trimmed, particularly because the KPK was set up in 2004 to make up for the police and the AGO’s failure to fight graft.
The new House members face an uphill task if the President’s response to the report submitted by the fact-finding report on Tuesday is anything to go by.
The President will only respond to it next week, more than a month after the KPK got embroiled in the legal battle with the police and the AGO. The President had delayed the submission of the report pending a powwow with the National Police chief, the attorney general and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief – an act that has raised many eyebrows.
The small victory at the House has reignited the people’s hopes about the controversial bailout being resolved, particularly because earlier hearings have gone against the people’s sense of justice. The House members were overtly sympathetic to the police and the AGO in their recent hearings, although it was becoming clear that the two institutions had been involved in trying to frame the KPK.
The House members who started their five-year term last month have a golden opportunity to prove they are true representatives of the people and to clean up the tainted image of the House. The KPK found at least one-third of the House’s previous members were involved in numerous cases of bribery.
Opini The Jakarta Pos 19 November 2009