JakartaGlobe, 26 February 2011
After its failed push for a special inquiry into corruption in the tax office, the Golkar Party has come up with a new issue: the leadership of the Indonesian House of Representatives’ Bank Century bailout monitoring team.
Analysts and critics, though, say Golkar’s reviving of the Century issue could be its response to threats by the Democratic Party to kick it out of the ruling coalition over the tax inquiry push.
After its failed push for a special inquiry into corruption in the tax office, the Golkar Party has come up with a new issue: the leadership of the Indonesian House of Representatives’ Bank Century bailout monitoring team.
Analysts and critics, though, say Golkar’s reviving of the Century issue could be its response to threats by the Democratic Party to kick it out of the ruling coalition over the tax inquiry push.
Setya Novanto, Golkar’s chairman in the legislature, said on Friday that the Century monitoring team’s leadership — currently rotated among House leaders — had been ineffective and would be better if it was given permanently to one of three deputy speakers.
“It could be Priyo, Anis or Pramono Anung,” Setya said, referring to the deputy speakers representing the three parties most critical of the controversial 2008 bailout.
Golkar’s Priyo Budi Santoso is deputy speaker of the House taking care of political, legal and security issues; Anis Matta, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), oversees financial and economic affairs; and Pramono Anung, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), takes care of industrial and economic development issues.
The monitoring team was set up last year to make sure that law enforcers followed up on House findings that laws were violated in the Rp 6.7 trillion ($757 million) bailout of Bank Century.
The timing of the reminder, however, is not a coincidence, according to a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute, Hanta Yuda.
He said Golkar’s latest push to strengthen the Bank Century monitoring team was just another move to fortify its position in the coalition, given all the threats the Democrats have made in the wake of the tax office corruption inquiry controversy.
“This Bank Century talk is a result of their failed maneuver with the tax inquiry,” Hanta said. “This is political hostage-taking.”
The Century inquiry was widely seen as Golkar targeting former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Vice President Boediono.
“They were never serious about the tax inquiry, it was just another tool to hold each other hostage. Sadly, it was never for the sake of the people,” Hanta said, echoing the view of several other political observers and insiders.
Sources have said the tax office inquiry proposal needed to be seen in the context of political maneuvering ahead of the 2014 elections, and that despite claims to the contrary, the whole episode was never really about the so-called tax mafia.
Marwan Jaf’ar, the House faction chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), one of the coalition members loyal to the president’s Democrats, agreed that Golkar might be engaged in political maneuvering after the tax office inquiry was blocked by the government’s supporters.
“We should act like a family. Please, don’t try to compete to show who’s the real winner,” he said, adding that Golkar’s proposal ran counter to an agreement among all the House factions on the monitoring team.
But Golkar’s secretary general, Idrus Marham, denied the proposal had anything to do with the tax inquiry failure, insisting that all of Golkar’s moves were, in fact, aimed at strengthening the administration.
All Golkar wants, he said, is for the Bank Century saga to be resolved. “If it isn’t monitored properly, our credibility will be affected,” he said.
The PKS, which sided with Golkar on both Century and the tax office inquiry, said it would support a shakeup in the monitoring team’s leadership.
“The monitoring team must be firmer. It could also be expanded into a right to express an opinion,” the PKS’s Anis said, referring to the first step in the impeachment process.
Achsanul Qosasih, a Democratic Party lawmaker and member of the Bank Century monitoring team, said he had no problems with Golkar’s proposal.
“It’s not a problem for us,” he said, adding that a permanent leader would ensure more consistency. “Anyone can be appointed to chair the team. Even if the chairman were appointed from among members of the team, we would agree.”
A political analyst from Surabaya’s Airlangga University, Airlangga Pribadi, said there would always be political maneuvering in the House, but regardless of what the motivations were, the public must not remain silent on the Bank Century issue.
He said civil society needed to get involved in the matter and demand more transparency.
Source: JakartaGlobe
