House appoints BI deputy governors

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives appointed three Bank Indonesia deputy governors late on Wednesday, overriding an earlier deal to wait for an amendment to the central bank law.

Promoted from senior officials to deputy governors were Maulana Ibrahim, Maman Sumantri, and Bunbunan Hutapea, said Benny Pasaribu, chairman of House Commission IX on the state budget and finance, which oversees the central bank.

The three replaced Achwan, who retired early this year, Dono Iskandar, who retired late last year, and Burhanuddin Abdullah, who resigned earlier this year after then president Abdurrahman Wahid named him as coordinating minister for the economy.

Abdurrahman's downfall paved the way for legislators to reshuffle BI's top management, thus reducing the appetite for a new central bank law.

Abdurrahman's administration had insisted that the amendment of the central bank law come before the naming of new governors.

Under the central bank law, a governor cannot be replaced unless he or she has been proven guilty of a crime, has become incapacitated, or voluntarily resigns.

According to Abdurrahman, reshuffling the governors would have rid the central bank of its corrupt past practices.

The current board was in charge during the period when billions of dollars worth of liquidity support were misused.

Abdurrahman had made clear his intention to remove Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin.

But plans to amend the central bank law met with criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which argued that the move would put at risk the central bank's hard-won independence.

Bank Indonesia was put under IMF supervision after the massive abuse of liquidity support loans had been revealed.

Benny said the House would proceed with plans to amend the law, but it remained to be seen when this would start.