BCA divestment

BCA divestment

From Rakyat Merdeka

The BCA bank divestment will be detrimental to the country and
could bring about protracted social problems. Hence, the policy
should be reconsidered. Indonesia is premature in selling BCA. It
is wise to postpone or cancel the divestment while waiting for
the right time.

I believe that the divestment of BCA will result in
bankruptcy. An economic and banking crisis that broke out at the
beginning of 1998 was one of the factors that caused the national
economic collapse.

The government has taken rescue measures in the banking
sector, such as providing recapitalization funds and giving
liquidity assistance, called Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support
Loans (BLBI), to national banks, including to BCA.

As the biggest private national bank in Indonesia, with the
majority stake in the hands of the government, BCA is currently
still undergoing a revival and striving to strengthen its
position in the national or even regional banking world.

While the bank is still struggling to improve its position, it
is suddenly forced to go international only because the owner
(the government) has decided to release its majority stake as
part of the privatization program. However, the actual reason is
the need of funds to offset the budget deficit which burdens the
government.

Politicians, banking observers, community leaders,
stakeholders and even BCA employees and customers have questioned
this government's policy. Why should the government choose the
BCA? Why should the BCA be released prematurely? The decision to
sell the BCA has aroused a lot of controversy.

If this experiment with BCA is successful, other national
assets worth a total of nearly Rp 470 trillion are ready for
sale. But if the step is unsuccessful, the government will feel
upset because of threats by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
that failure in privatization will cause this international
monetary body to no longer help Indonesia overcome her economic
and financial problems.

Is the government unaware that the IMF has dictated its
policy? Some circles believe that the IMF's grand design is
giving assistance to third world countries facing funds shortages
but with the West's interests, which means colonialist interests,
behind the assistance.

BIBIT GUNAWAN

Jakarta