Bank Indonesia's independence

Bank Indonesia's independence

The opinion offered by National Economic Council secretary Dr.
Sri Mulyani is interesting. An independent (central) bank should
not be taken to mean that the bank and the government must each
go their own way. Rather, both should be sitting down together to
discuss economic and monetary matters. Sri Mulyani also
considered the granting of independent status to the bank as ill-
timed as it was done at a time when the central bank had not put
its house in order. Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Anwar
Nasution even called the institution a "bandit's den".

Considering all this, both sides in the current conflict,
President Abdurrahman Wahid on the one hand and Bank Indonesia
Governor Syahril Sabirin on the other, would do well to do some
introspection. Bank Indonesia must reform itself so it will be
worthy of being considered credible. The same goes for the
government. Its current dispute with the bank's governor should
not be resolved outside of the legal structure, especially if the
only objective is to replace Syahril with someone else for the
sake of consolidating the government's power.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta