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Surya Paloh is looking for his cues. One of the early initiatives Paloh took was defining his stance on the Century case. Observing the surge in support for Sri Mulyani, he is throwing his weight behind her. The corollary is to attack Bakrie’s tax liabilities, which he has done in a television special on the case that could well amount to more than Rp 10 Trillion. Renewed publicity on the Lapindo disaster will come . If all this happens, Bakrie will see his chances sink into the mud. [includes Radio Australia excerpt]
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inilah.com: "Aburizal Bakrie itu baik, teman lama, tapi ngemplang pajak, mengabaikan lumpur dan pake uang dan jabatan untuk menekan orang baik SMI-Boed (Sri Mulyani dan Boediono),"
okezone.com: Dalam sebuah tweet-nya yang lain, Wimar menuliskan "Tax liability ARB Rp 10T bukan gosip tapi dalam proses penyidikan. Kalo SMI dihentikan ARB aman,"
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Apabila Sri Mulyani dicopot, maka yang paling diuntungkan adalah Golkar sedang yang paling rugi adalah warga biasa yang menyimpan uang di bank, yang menghendaki keamanan di bank, serta investor asing. Seluruh sistim keuangan akan dipersulit. Tapi tidak sampai kolaps apabila digantikan oleh orang yang punya kemampuan ekonomi seperti Anggito Abimanyu. Dia orang trampil dan bersih tapi dia bukan seorang fighter seperti Sri Mulyani. Demikian Wimar. "Jadi kita akan kembali pada mild reform yang saya tidak tahu hasilnya akan sampai mana".
Bagi Golkar, siapa saja pengganti Sri adalah lebih baik asalkan bukan Sri Mulyani. Golkar juga tidak bisa menyatakan tidak setuju reformasi. Untuk sementara mereka ingin Aburizal Bakrie diselamatkan dari tuntutan pajak karena pengadilan pajak sedang dipersiapkan
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Substitute Aburizal Bakrie for Amien Rais in the leading role, and you have the same scenario now as we had back then. Bulog-Bruneigate was the excuse for wanton attacks on the president in 2001 and Bank Century is the issue in 2010. Buloggate was never proven as a crime and neither will the Bank Century case. Amien Rais went for straight impeachment instead, explaining that it doesn't matter what he is guilty of, he has been removed. Aburizal may yet desert Century and aim at impeachment, all or nothing.
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Corruption was inside of the government, now the corrupt people are outside. Outside of the cabinet, but not outside of the political system. Many suspect elements are members of the parliament, and some officials who had been dismissed by Sri Mulyani have been selected to head important agencies such as the Audit Agency (BPK). When Sri Mulyani upheld the law on tax, capital markets and acquisitions, some fell victim to the rulings in favor of good governance. This has spawned a vendetta among the erstwhile victims of reform. That is the plain truth about the Bank Century debate.
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Sudah terlalu lama kita membiarkan orang bersikap kasar sampai menendang-nendang gambar pejabat negara yang tidak bersalah, mencaci maki kebijaksanaan yang tidak dimengerti. Perbedaan antara SMI dan Aburizal Bakrie mengembalikan perspektif kita pada pilihan sederhana dan murni. Tanpa mengubur masalah dalam penjelasan panjang-panjang, kita ramai-ramai dan sendiri-sendiri melakukan pilihan sendiri: SMI atau Bakrie?
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The Wall Street Jounal published a bombshell piece titled "Indonesian Minister defends bailout". It was a frank and direct statement by the internationally acclaimed Finance Minister which shocked some parties but relieved the general public who had long wanted to see some light at the end of the political tunnel which the Bank Century case had become. The finger points to Aburizal Bakrie eh is facing huge tax obligations and fines in a case being prepared by the Indonesian Tax Office. Presdent Yudhoyono is expected to support the Finance Minister who is the most important asset in Indonesia's economic credibility.
Jakarta Official Defends BailoutArticleSlideshowComments (3)MORE IN WORLD »EmailPrinterFriendlyShare:facebook↓ MoreSave This↓ MoreTextBy TOM WRIGHTJAKARTA -- Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said a parliamentary probe into the government's handling of a 0 million bank bailout last year is an attempt by rival politicians to unseat her because of her efforts to overhaul the country's bureaucracy.View Full ImageBloomberg NewsIndonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, shown speaking at a seminar in Jakarta last week, in an interview defended the bailout of Bank Century last year.Ms. Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono have become subjects in recent weeks of a parliamentary investigation into the bailout in November 2008 of Bank Century, a small Indonesian lender. As finance minister, Ms. Sri Mulyani oversaw the bailout; Mr. Boediono was central-bank governor at the time.Ms. Sri Mulyani said in an interview that failing to guarantee Bank Century's deposits at a time of huge capital outflows from emerging markets could have sparked panic among depositors of other banks. "I felt like what I did was the right thing for the country," she said.Mr. Boediono has also defended the bailout as necessary to stop wider panic in the banking sector.The head of the investigation, Idrus Marham, who is secretary-general of the Golkar Part y, said on Wednesday the investigation was backed by all major political parties and wasn't targeted at Ms. Sri Mulyani."We didn't do this to target Sri Mulyani. The focus is to get data and facts" on the bailout, Mr. Marham said.Fighting Corruption in IndonesiaView SlideshowBaso Ballang/Associated PressScores of students, including this one, armed with rocks and wooden planks clashed with anti-riot police and vandalized commercial buildings at a rally in Makassar, the South Sulawesi provincial capital, 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta.More photos and interactive graphicsHe declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation, which began this month and he said will take two months to complete.Mr. Marham and other Golkar Party lawmakers who are leading the probe claim the bailout of Bank Century was done without legal authority and without proving a capital injection was needed to stave off a run on other banks. Some politicians have said the bank wasn't eligible for a rescue because its problems stemmed from fraud that led to the bank's near-collapse. One of the bank's former owners, Robert Tantular, was sentenced in September to four years in prison for fraud.Ms. Sri Mulyani said the bailout was legal.A former university economics professor and International Monetary Fund senior executive, Ms. Sri Mulyani is respected by many foreign investors for her role in managing Indonesia's economy, which has included efforts to weed out endemic corruption.She said she believed the probe was an attempt to discredit her by politicians that oppose her reform agenda, notably leaders of the Golkar Party, including Chairman Aburizal Bakrie, a billionaire businessman and former cabinet member in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first-term administration.Ms. Sri Mulyani said tensions between her and Mr. Bakrie date to last year when she opposed the closure of Indonesia's stock exchange amid a run on companies controlled by Mr. Bakrie. Mr. Bakrie, one of whose coal-mining firms accounted for a third of daily turnover on the bourse at the time, ordered the closure, she said.Mr. Bakrie, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the closure.The finance ministry also last year imposed a travel ban on a number of coal-mining executives, including some from Mr. Bakrie's companies, after a dispute over the refusal of the companies to pay royalties on the sale of coal to the government."Abuizal Bakrie is not happy with me," she said. "I'm not expecting anyone in Golkar will be fair or kind to me" during the probe.Mr. Bakrie denied there was any problem between himself and Ms. Sri Mulyani.Many analysts say the claim that the bailout was illegal appears to be without merit."Under the circumstances, what Sri Mulyani and Boediono did was to prevent a crisis," said Umar Juoro, chairman of the Center for Information and Development Studies, a Jakarta-based think tank.Other government officials involved in the bailout have supported Ms. Sri Mulyani. The head of Indonesia's Deposit Guarantee Agency told an Indonesian magazine, Gatra, last week that the rescue was lawful.Some senior Golkar politicians have in recent weeks publicly called for Ms. Sri Mulyani and Mr. Boediono to hand their jobs to deputies while the investigation is under way.President Yudhoyono won re-election to a second term this year on a graft-busting platform. Indonesia's natural-resources-powered economy is forecast by private economists to grow by more than 4% this year, a healthy clip compared with many developed economies, but economists question whether that growth will be sustained if the country can't get a handle on corruption -- a major deterrent to foreign investment here, which lags behind India and China.Popular dissatisfaction with corruption continues to mount. On Wednesday, students armed with rocks and wooden planks clashed with riot police as more than two dozen rallies involving thousands of protesters broke out as part of annual events designed to mark International Anticorruption Day.Any signs of an intensification of efforts to oust Ms. Sri Mulyani would also likely spook foreign investors who have applauded her antigraft drive and management of the budget. Since taking up her job at the finance ministry in 2005, she has overseen a reduction in public debt to 30% of GDP from 60%, making it easier for Indonesia to sell debt to foreign institutional investors, bankers say."There's no way you could fill the credibility gap that would be created by her departure," says David Fernandez, a managing director of J.P. Morgan in Singapore who heads the bank's emerging-Asia research.Indonesia is serious about pushing through overhauls to clear up what Mr. Yudhoyono has referred to as a "judicial mafia" of corrupt officials in the courts, attorney general's office and police, Ms. Sri Mulyani said. But she acknowledged that Mr. Yudhoyono's first term was a "honeymoon" for her."I should become more realistic. I'm expecting a nasty battle if I'm going to do the reform," she said.Priorities, Ms. Sri Mulyani said, include continuing to clean up her own ministry, where there is still corruption, and catching more tax cheats. Past efforts led by Ms. Sri Mulyani have included a war on graft in the tax office, greatly increasing the nation's tax base, and customs department.Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com
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Jangan pernah takut akan kembalinya drakula Orde Baru lima tahun tahun mendatang, karena pada dasarnya sistem dan masyarakat kita sudah belajar bagaimana cara membuat barikade kuat agar itu tidak terjadi lagi. Bagitu disebut, Drakula diam bersembunyi. Bagi para pengamat, tolong jangan remehkan masyarakat sebagai alat kontrol yang paling setia bagi pemerintah.
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ata orang TV: " Mana ada tuh kultur partai selalu di pemerintahan. Ilmu partai cuman satu: kalau menang masuk pemerintahan. kalau kalah jadi oposisi." Atau bubar :)
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If he succeeds in accommodating political pressure groups, Indonesia may transgress political bickering and be ready to assume a new role in the world for the nation. SBY has the international vision to remake Indonesia into a big player in Asia and a voice in the world. Carrying the theme forward, non-political people who are concerned for the nation hope to see SBY use his second term to refresh Indonesia’s international role. Islam, democracy and modernity co-exists in Indonesia. Indonesia has the capital to be a moderate Muslim nation and now we also have the government.
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Pemerintah SBY-2 bisa menghadapi dilemma jika pemikiran masih dilanjutkan secara konvensional dengan menghitung suara partai dan membandingkan kekuatan menurut jumlah kursi DPR. Kebiasaan menghitung kekuatan dari suara pimpinan partai itu sekarang sudah harus dipertanyakan. Dengan menunjuk Boediono dan bukan politikus sebagai Cawapres SBY telah menunjukkan diri sebagai orang yang decisive. Jika penunjukan ini dilanjutkan dengan pembentukan kabinet yang terdiri sebagian besar atas profesional, maka pemerintah Indonesia akan bisa melompati suasana percekcokan partai dan memasuki percaturan yang lebih agung pada tataran dunia.
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Jakarta Bureau Chief Yusuke Takahashi intervewed Wimar Witoelar for the Japanese television network NHK. The following is a full transcript of the interview. Excerpt: 'If I had my way then I would like to have SBY devote himself to the future and assign the management of the country to the technocras. He has a very good team of technocrats already. He has Mr. Boediono, he has Sri Mulyani, he has Dr. Chatib Basri. A large number of proven technocrats, very clean, very expert. Also in other areas. SBY isn’t really a politician, he was a military man, but he could be a statesman. So I think his second term should be dedicated to the future. And that is mostly in re-establishing Indonesia’s presence in the world. I believe very strongly that international relations are very important to the nation’s future because it is a global world.'
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Kita harus mengukur sikap Capres dari sikap mereka sebelum kampanye
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He needs a Vice President, and Sultan Hamengku Buwono of Yogyakarta will do. He is a good guy, a decent man, electable, and could win some votes. The SBY-HB ticket will be solid if announced soon enough to keep JK off balance. He will be kept busy in a no-man's land of fencing with Megawati for the number one spot, when both do not qualify for even number two. Read ›
Kalau orang benci Sukarno atau tidak suka Suharto selama mereka memegang jabatan Presiden, orang bisa bebas ngomel, melawan atau tidak peduli. Dikasih kesempatan memilih, lepas saja, enakan Golput. Sangat bisa dibenarkan, Golput jaman dulu. Tapi dalam sejarah Indonesia, kita sekarang paling mendekati demokrasi beneran. Memilih bukan hanya tanggung jawab tapi hak dan kekuatan. Tidak percuma dipakai istilah "hak memilih", bukan "kewajiban memilih". Read ›
Bakrie financial skeletons keep coming out. The Jakarta Globe just broke a story today on a controversial investment by government-owned PNM of more than a trillion rupiah into the Bakrie Group, amid revelations that the firm’s former chief executive is the brother-in-law of Minister Aburizal Bakrie. The drama continues, with President Yudhoyono ignoring the wreckage being piled up by his right-hand man. Read ›
Menurut Budiarto Shambazy, jika publik suka terhadap SBY-JK silakan pilih apalagi kalau yang lain lebih jelek dari mereka berdua. Namun dalam penilaiannya, SBY-JK sebaiknya berpisah karena selama empat tahun pemerintahan mereka berdua saling bersaing terus. Jadi kalau mereka maju lagi bersama hanya membuang-buang energi saja. Read ›
Sekarang kemampuan komunikasi dan mesin politik adalah faktor utama dalam memenangkan pemilihan. Ini zaman komunikasi politik. Jadi jangan underestimate komunikasi politik, walaupun mesin politik juga tetap perlu. Untuk perspektif kasar, bisa dibayangkan kemampuan komunikasi (KOM) berperan 60% sedangkan mesin politik (MES) berperan 40%. Read ›
Interview with Jim Middleton - The Australian Network (ABC-TV) JM: Is it right that this is still President Yudoyono's election to lose? WW: Yes, it is his to lose if he forgets the true reason for his victory in 2004 which is the trust of the people, and instead hangs on to corrupt business people like Cabinet Minister Bakrie and Vice President Kalla. I think he is coming to that realization. Read ›
Krisis finansial adalah peringatan dini sebelum krisis ekonomi. Ketika gejala finansial tidak diperhatikan, bahkan ditambah parah oleh keserakahan merebut keuntungan jangka pendek, maka krisis finansial akan menjadi krisis ekonomi. Bagaimana issue ini dihadapi oleh calon presiden RI 2009? Siapa orang yang akan membantunya? Kalau SBY dianggap calon terkuat sampai saat ini, apakah beliau akan tetap kuat kalau lebih menjaga kepentingan Bakrie Group ketimbang kepentingan rakyat? Read ›
