Analysts back Gus Dur on removing Sjahril<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Analysts support President Abdurrahman Wahid's
\nmove to replace Bank Indonesia governor Sjahril Sabirin, but
\nmajor factions at the House of Representatives have yet to give a
\nresponse to his proposal.<\/p>\n
Pande Raja Silalahi of the Center for Strategic and
\nInternational Studies and Lulu Harsono, president of Bank Pikko,
\nsaid on Thursday it was high time to reshuffle Bank Indonesia's
\nboard of governors, including the governor, to restore its
\ncredibility.<\/p>\n
\"They should be reshuffled, or at least moved aside. This is
\nnecessary to restore the central bank's credibility,\" Pande Raja
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He said what President Abdurrahman had done was right, and the
\nHouse should respond quickly to minimize possible damage to the
\ncentral bank following the announcement of the damning audit
\nreport on BI by the Supreme Audit Agency.<\/p>\n
\"The House should not wait until the completion of the
\ninvestigative audit on the central bank. The proposal (to
\nreshuffle the board of governors) is not based solely on the
\naudit, but on the spirit to clean up BI,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Lulu shared Pande Raja's argument and said that Bank
\nIndonesia, under the current management, was still not
\ntransparent, as demanded by the central bank law.<\/p>\n
\"If you ask me should the Bank Indonesia governor be replaced,
\nI would say yes, he must be replaced. In fact, he should have
\nbeen replaced long ago, before all these things got worse,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Former Bank Indonesia director I. Nyoman Moena, however,
\ndisagreed and said that neither the government nor the House of
\nRepresentatives could remove members of Bank Indonesia's board of
\ngovernors with reasons not mentioned in the central bank law.<\/p>\n
Moena said that according the law, the BI governor and deputy
\ngovernors could be removed from their positions only when their
\nterms expired, when they tendered their resignations, when they
\nsuffered disabilities that make them unable to perform their
\nduties or when they were found guilty of committing criminal
\nacts.<\/p>\n
\"No one can remove members of the board of governors. Only
\nwith those four conditions, can the President and the House
\nremove the governor and deputy governors,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The writers of the law, he said, deliberately made it
\ndifficult for anyone to fire members of BI's board of governors
\nwith one aim: to uphold the central bank's independency so that
\nno single political power could shake its independency.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, major House factions moved cautiously in response
\nto President Abdurrahman's proposal, saying that they must stick
\nto the central bank law.<\/p>\n
Syamsul Muarif, chairman of the Golkar Party faction, said his
\nfaction would not give a response to the President's proposal
\nuntil the investigative audit on BI was completed.<\/p>\n
\"Only when irregularities are found, can the House propose
\ncandidates to replace BI governor Sjahril Sabirin and my faction
\nwill be strict on that,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He conceded that two names, BI senior deputy governor Anwar
\nNasution and deputy governor Dono Iskandar, had been spread among
\nHouse members but said the House was open to others who were
\nconsidered capable and credible for the position.<\/p>\n
Sukowaluyo Mintohardjo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction concurred, and said his faction
\nwould replace Sabirin and other governors only if irregularities
\nwere found in the audit.<\/p>\n
Sukowaluyo, also chairman of the House's Commission IX for
\nfinance and the state budget, said the House would maintain its
\ncontrol function to supervise the government and also the central
\nbank.<\/p>\n
\"This is the first time the House has had to take action
\nagainst the alleged irregularities in the central bank.\"<\/p>\n
A.M. Fatwa, House deputy speaker from the reform faction, said
\nhis faction would not interfere in any problems in the
\nbureaucracy and the central bank and that it had no suitable
\ncandidates for the top position.<\/p>\n
Fatwa said his faction would support the proposal if the
\nSupreme Audit Agency and the House's commission for finance and
\nthe state budget followed up the alleged irregularities.
\n(rms\/rid)<\/p>",
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