Century fiasco & politics
Bank Century bailout fiasco is clearly not the fiasco of the century. There are other major fiascos, like Maddoff or our 1997-1998 US$70 billion bailout on banking system. Some 139 legislators have signed a petition to probe the bailout. It's just funny when President SBY's Demokrat faction chairman Anas Urbaningrum said "don't play politics" in responding the maneuver.
Politics is a process by which groups of people make decisions, that's one of definitions of politics. So, when a group of ministers and central bank officers made the bailout decision, that's politics too. And, when 139 legislators decided to sign the petition, that's also politics. Or when 100 of newspapers and outlets decided to publish the reports about Century fiasco, that's politics.
So, probably what Anas Urbaningrum really wanted to say is "don't hassle our boss and friends with this issue." Just like when a group of people decided to bailout Bank Century, it is just fair to also have another group of people decided to ask questions about the bailout.
Those who decided to bailout Century argued "we did that for the sake of the nation." "We decided to ask LPS to inject Rp6.7 trillion to prevent bigger losses from a possible systemic risk impact." On the other hand, those questioning the bailout argued "better use the Rp6.7 trillion funds to build new schools or hospitals." "The bailout was made only to help big depositors recoup their funds in the troubled bank."
Interestingly, this regime increasingly fond of the word "don't" when they're in trouble. Don't do that, that's not polite, that's not our culture, don't even try, too early, etc...pretty much similar to Soeharto! Nobody has a monopoly on truth. Monopoly of truth causes wars, creates tyrants, absolute rulers, and corruptors.
SBY, Boediono, Marzuki Ali, Anas Urbaningrum, and other leaders from Demokrat and coalition members should simply say: "we will challenge the planned inquiry."
Labels: Politics
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posted by yosef at 11:34 PM
7 Comments:
Another stupid article... can't believe this come out from "an economic consultant"...
6.7 Trillion rupiah saved if you closed Bank Century on 20th November 2008 you said ?
How about the saving under 2 billion rupiah that is totally guaranteed by the LPS and has to be paid out ? Have you ever consider that ?
That's the money that is totally lost... Find and know your fact before you speak...!
Sorry Hai, where in the article you're pointing to? I didn't see where the writer mentioned "6.7 trillion saved if you closed Bank Century on 20th November 2008?"
On the other hand, those questioning the bailout argued "better use the Rp6.7 trillion funds to build new schools or hospitals."
There won't be 6.7 Trillion funds to build new schools or hospitals if Century is closed on 20 November 2008... because some of it (majority of it in fact) will be used to pay out Century customer of their saving that is guaranteed by the LPS... Got it ?
Once again, I think you missed the point of the whole article...I wrote several times that the total funds under Rp2 billion at Century was Rp5.6 trillion. I never said the Rp6.7 trillion would be saved. But that's what people thought, and don't blame them for that.
We're talking about the whole process, not just the bailout...bailout is a product of lack of supervision. don't blame people if they think, BI should be responsible. Should they supervise the bank carefully, there won't be such bailout....
I don't blame the people... because they just believe whatever "the experts" said... If "the experts" mislead them they just believed that too... without checking the facts... it is people like you that public consider "experts" that should enlighten them with truth and not lies. As the vice President said couple days ago.. he welcomed the parliament investigation, because it will, he hoped, enlighten the people of what was actually going on, of what was the truth.. But I wonder if the "experts" continues to obscure the truth and backed by the media who thrive on controversy whether the people can really be enlightened. "experts" like you has a responsibility to tell the public about the truth and not just follow whatever that is convenience and advantageous to your own popularity.
I may be agree that the whole bail out thing is the result of the lack of supervision from BI. Now that was either through corruption from BI officials, or simply incompetence or may be the law was so weak and inadequate that it failed from detecting fraud by the bank management. That's remain to be seen and has to be investigated.
But the whole affair has been geared up into a political affair instead of purely law and economic affairs. (I.e. saving the economy of the country and prosecuting the people who were responsible for the bankruptcy of the bank)
Anybody can see that the intermediate target of all of this is the vice president and economic minister, and the main target is the president itself. If not to impeached and take him down then at least injured him. Making him a lame president for the next 5 years. To be fair.. if the cause of the Century bankruptcy was the lack of supervision from BI since 2005 then was it the responsibility of Boediono to fail to notice it if he was only elected the governor of BI on May 2008 ?
I'm not a politician, nor an expert, but
I guess being a leader, especially in country like Indonesia, you have assumed yourself a master in politics. So, just deal with that.
Blaming "experts" won't help, I think. Because some might believe that government and central bank officers have also misled public shamelessly simply to cover up their weaknesses and ignorance. They have the rights to ask: Do we really know when bank indonesia smelled something at Century? Do we really know when people like Boediono aware of Century's situation? Don't take it as personal issue of Boediono (no doubt he is a good and polite guy), but that can't prevent others to ask questions about Boediono as a leader of the bank which supposedly supervise Century or Tripanca in Lampung...
HAI put another perspective to this article despite the begining unpolite comment. That's the money that is totally lost? Then find out who's the arranger of this troubled bailout..and I think YOSEF's article helps his readers knowing some clues to the way out.
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