Ex-Bank Bali president called a liar

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) lodged a complaint on Friday at the National Police Headquarters against Rudy Ramli in connection with an earlier statement in the media that he never kept account of the questionable Bank Bali transaction or those involved in the scandal.

"That is a blatant lie since I have his account. Rudy gave it to me voluntarily when he came for legal help on Aug. 11 and asked me to be his lawyer," said Amien Haryoso, deputy head of the legal department at PDI Perjuangan's research and development division.

"Rudy has practically written a diary on the whole process of the transaction, from beginning to end."

Minister of Justice/State Secretary Muladi said on Thursday that former Bank Bali president Rudy Ramli sent a statement to President B.J. Habibie denying the existence of a diary containing a chronology of his successive meetings with senior ministers and Habibie's close associates in the lead-up to the Bank Bali scandal.

Muladi distributed the copies of Rudy's statement of denial to reporters following a Cabinet meeting on security and political affairs.

Rudy said in the statement that he only told of a "fake account due to pressure from PDI Perjuangan".

Rudy reportedly claimed that pressure came from Maj. Gen. (ret.) Suhartoyo, who is currently deputy head of the human resources department at the party's research and development division.

Rudy claimed that Suhartoyo had kidnapped him.

Amien said that he had no idea who kidnapped Rudy, but it was certainly "not Suhartoyo," who accompanied Amien to the National Police Headquarters.

"We come to the police not only to lodge a complaint but also to submit the account and other information Rudy gave us," Amien said.

When asked if he was still a defense lawyer for Rudy, Amien said that he was "thankfully fired since Rudy is a big liar".

Rudy's diary identifies the following figures involved prior to and during the process of the illegal Bank Bali transaction: Businessmen Djoko. S. Chandra and Setya Novanto, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) Pande Lubis, Bank Bali director Firman Soetjahja, Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin, Head of the Supreme Advisory Council A.A. Baramuli, State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng and Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto, tycoon M. Manimaren, Hariman Siregar and Habibie's younger brother Suyatim "Timmy" Habibie.

PDI Perjuangan issued a statement to the media last week of the involvement of senior ministers and Habibie's inner circle in the Bank Bali scandal.

The scandal revolves around the transfer of Rp 546 billion (about US$73 million at current rate) of funds from Bank Bali to private firm PT Era Giat Prima (EGP) as a commission for its service in helping the bank recoup some Rp 904 billion ($135 million at current rate) in interbank claims on closed-down Bank BDNI from IBRA.

EGP is a company owned by Djoko and Setya, both affiliated with Habibie's Golkar Party.

IBRA insisted that Bank Bali should not have used EGP's service because the interbank claims were guaranteed through the government blanket guarantee program.

Although the missing funds were returned by EGP, the public, the House of Representatives and the international community have demanded all people involved in the scandal should be legally processed because a crime was committed.

The Habibie administration is facing increasing pressure from the public, the House and international community to take strong legal action against all the culprits implicated in the scandal.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the House demanded an independent investigation should be made to trace the flow of funds from Bank Bali to other bank accounts to check who were the people involved in the case.

The World Bank country director for Indonesia, Mark Baird, warned the government earlier in the week to resolve the Bank Bali scandal quickly and "satisfactorily," or it would suspend its budgetary support to the government.

The fund's Asia Pacific director, Hubert Neiss, also told reporters on Thursday that the IMF would take strong action against an unsatisfactory resolution of the scandal.

The fund is organizing a US$43 billion bailout fund to help finance the country's economic programs.

Separately, Budhy Tjahjati, the deputy for international cooperation at the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), said on Friday that there was no doubt that multilateral institutions would stop financial support to Indonesia if the resolution to the scandal was far from expectation.

She said that the government must take the threat from the World Bank and IMF seriously.

She also said that the government should seriously start thinking of alternative sources of financing in anticipation of a possible suspension of either World Bank or IMF loans.

"But the most important thing to understand is that the threat was made to push us (the government) to move quickly to resolve the Bank Bali case," she told reporters after a meeting with representatives of donor institutions.

In a related development, sources at the National Police said police investigations of the case had so far concluded that Bank Indonesia executives were "in the clear". (rei/ylt)