Aftermath of banks liquidation

My nephew's 5-year old daughter exclaimed "The bank where my daddy works has no money, now my daddy has lost his job..."

My nephew, who has worked eight years in one of the 16 liquidated banks, had a vague inkling a month ago that something was wrong with the bank where he worked, but the Nov. 1 announcement that 16 banks were liquidated nonetheless came as a surprise to him.

As matters stand he is trying to get another job, which will not be easy during the present monetary crisis, and if he can not get one within three months we will be obliged to sell his house in order to pay off his debt and his family will live with his father who now lives alone. Luckily his wife is still working, otherwise he would have no means of paying the expenses of his two school-going children. This is one of the examples of the aftermath of the bank liquidation.

Another story is of a bank customer who had just sold his house (he apparently has more than one house) for 600 million rupiah and deposited his money in one of the liquidated banks. There is nothing left for him but to mourn his bad luck.

Another customer of the same bank had the day before the announcement extended his fixed deposit for another year. The Rp 80 million is the life savings of both husband and wife who both work for a living.

It seems that we could make a long list of tragic stories following the liquidation of the 16 banks. BHS, the largest bank liquidated, was said to have some 4,000 employees throughout the country. It will not be easy to provide new jobs for such a large number of people.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta