I am not a corruptor: Ginandjar Kartasasmita
By Kornelius Purba
TOKYO (JP): Former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita has denied any involvement in the Balongan oil refinery construction scandal, saying he is not a corruptor.
"I am not a corruptor right?" he told The Jakarta Post last week when asked about allegations that he played a role in the project.
Without elaborating, Ginandjar complained that there were a lot of rumors about him circulating in Jakarta.
Ginandjar, a visiting fellow at Harvard University in the U.S., has been invited by the prestigious Waseda University to give a series of lectures on "Governance and the Economic Crisis, the Case of Indonesia" until next Wednesday.
The Indonesian Attorney General's Office has summoned him to testify over the Balongan scandal and a number of other graft cases. Earlier this month, the office questioned a son of former president Soeharto, Sigit Hardjojudanto, in connection with the marking up of the value of the project in Balongan, West Java, by US$113 million.
Ginandjar said on Saturday that he had not received a summons.
He also declined to comment on Attorney General Marzuki Darusman's decision to question him in connection with corruption cases.
"I have not received the summons, so I cannot comment at the moment," said Ginandjar, who is also a People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) vice speaker.
He just laughed when he was told about a media report that he had recently met with Marzuki in the Netherlands. Ginandjar hinted that he would answer all the allegations and clear his name soon after his upcoming arrival in Jakarta.
Ginandjar's Jakarta-based lawyer Muchyar Yara earlier told reporters that his client would give written a testimony on the alleged graft cases. But on Friday Marzuki insisted that Ginandjar should personally come to his office.
Speaking to the Post after delivering his lecture at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University on Saturday, Ginandjar said he should return to Jakarta in July to prepare for the MPR annual session. He plans to return soon after completing his research at Harvard University, which he started last September.
Also the coordinating minister for economy, finance and industry under president B.J. Habibie, Ginandjar lectures here twice a week. His 12 students are always outnumbered by local guests attending his classes. Ginandjar, who speaks Japanese fluently, graduated from Tokyo University's School of Agriculture and Technology Chemical Engineering in 1965.
His Japanese educational background, and his long career in the Cabinet -- in the position of coordinating minister for the economy, finance and industry under both Soeharto and Habibie, minister of mines and energy, state minister of national planning/head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) and junior minister of domestic production and head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) under Soeharto -- makes him still attractive to the Japanese government and business community.
On Saturday, before ending the three-hour session, Ginandjar also expressed sympathy for Soeharto and the former first family for their current troubles. He conceded that he could also be partly blamed for the failure of the Soeharto government in restoring the economy.
"I was also part of the regime," he remarked.
Ginandjar praised the efforts of the current government to punish all those who committed wrongdoings in the past. However, the former minister also pointed out that Indonesians should concentrate on building a future and not be trapped by the past.
He described the government's experience in dealing with the International Monetary Fund in overcoming the financial crisis since 1997 and the fall of Soeharto in May 1998. Ginandjar appeared proud when he described how the economy had clearly been on its way to recovery when he was in charge of the economy under the Habibie government.
"The economy was all right but there was a political problem," said Ginandjar, referring to Habibie's failure in the 1999 presidential election.