Govt needs to send signal to all criminals: Economist
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
While pushing ahead with plans to get debtors, considered as cooperative, off criminal charges, the government should send a strong signal that punishment would also prevail for uncooperative ones, an economist said.
Chatib Basri of the University of Indonesia said he shared the government's view that those who have been cooperative should be awarded with a release and discharge (R&D) status.
However, he was quick to add, it should focus also on how to deal with uncooperative debtors, instead of only boasting its soft stance against cooperative ones.
"The government should not hesitate in showing signs that they are committed to meting out tough punishment. This is important to send a message that criminals may be punished in this country," Chatib said on Friday.
"If not, crisis of morality will prevail. No one will be afraid to commit crimes any longer as they know in the end, they will not get punished."
His comments came as the government was in the final preparation phase to give four former bank owners a release and discharge status as they had been deemed relatively cooperative in settling their debts with the government.
The four are Sudwikatmono (former owner of Bank Subentra and Bank Surya) and Ibrahim Risyad (PT Risyad Salim International), Hendra Liem (Bank Budi) and The Nin King (Bank Dana Utama and Bank Baja).
They are among 35 debtors who in 1998 signed a debt settlement scheme with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), as a way of repaying some Rp 138 trillion (US$15 billion at today's rates) they owe to the state for misusing most of the liquidity support loans given by the government during the crisis in the late 1990s to help the banks stay afloat.
Another debtor, Salim (the founder of Bank BCA), will likely also be added to that list, as he too had been deemed by IBRA as cooperative.
The settlement scheme was separated into three parts, the Master of Settlement and Acquisition Agreement (MSAA), Master of Refinancing and Notes Issuance Agreements (MRNIA) and Deeds of Indebtedness (APU).
While Sudwikatmono, Ibrahim and Salim are listed under MSAA, The Nin King and Hendra Liem are included under APU.
The government said that Ibrahim Risyad had been cleared of all obligations after he paid Rp 27 billion in cash in October, on top of assets he had surrendered to IBRA, as part of his debt settlements. Ibrahim's debts were a total of Rp 635 billion.
As for Sudwikatmono, with outstanding debt of around Rp 1.8 trillion, IBRA claimed he had surrendered four assets equal in value to his debts.
IBRA chairman Syafruddin Temenggung has said that the status was needed to be given to them to provide legal certainty and show that the government was committed to abide by the agreed upon schemes.
Another economist stressed the need for the government to verify the value of the assets taken over to minimize the losses on part of the government.
Umar Juoro, analyst at the Center for Information and Development Studies (CIDES), earlier said that before issuing such a status, a verification on the assets that had been surrendered by debtors should be conducted first.
"The verification is needed to find out whether the depreciation in value was really caused by the macroeconomic situation -- as they have always claimed -- or because of anything else such as back-door deals," Umar said, adding that the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) was the right institution for it.
Critics have said that the value of the assets surrendered by the ex-bank owners had deteriorated so it was not sufficient to cover the debts.