Kwik vows to continue fight against 'black' conglomerates

Kwik vows to continue fight against 'black' conglomerates

JAKARTA (JP): Former chief economics minister Kwik Kian Gie
vowed on Monday to continue the battle against "black"
conglomerates.

Kwik said he would return to the House of Representatives
(DPR) as a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan) to strike back at the so called black
conglomerates and fight on behalf of the poor who had long been
sidelined and oppressed.

"God seems to be leading me back to my habitat, the DPR, and
from there I am instructed to represent the interests of the
millions of poor who have been oppressed, sidelined,
suffering...," he said in a speech at the official transfer of
duty to newly appointed Coordinating Minister for Economy Rizal
Ramli.

But Kwik, known as an economics commentator before his
appointment to the Cabinet, said that he would not become a
member of the opposition. "I will be a "working partner" for the
economics ministers to debate government policy," he added.

Kwik said that since his appointment as the coordinating
economics minister 10 months ago, one of his primary missions was
to make "corrections," and to force bad conglomerates to repay
all that they had robbed from the state and from tax payers.

"But it turned out that the road in front of me was already
full of mines scattered by the black conglomerates. Using the
money they robbed they took any measure to stop me, particularly
character assassination," he said.

According to Kwik, although the campaign against him was
successful among the elite, it was not believed by the people.

Kwik said that the bad conglomerates had robbed trillions of
rupiah and stashed it safely in overseas banks, particularly in
Singapore.

He said that with just a small portion of the interest income
from the deposits and backed by a network within the bureaucracy,
they were able to protect their interests.

"They have their own people and slaves everywhere, including
in IBRA, where their main problems are located," he said,
referring to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.

He explained that one example was the Master of Settlement and
Acquisition Agreement (MSAA) made by the previous administration
with huge conglomerates to repay the debts of their banks to the
government.

Kwik said that under the agreement, the bank owners who had
undoubtedly violated banking regulations, were freed from their
crimes by simply pledging personal assets to repay the money they
owed to the government.

Kwik launched a campaign to revise the MSAA agreement because
implementing it would put the state at risk of incurring huge
losses.

He asked the House to provide political support, but, so far,
the House has only formed an investigation team.

He said that the bad conglomerates had paid analysts to
initiate a disinformation campaign suggesting that if they were
jailed, the companies they founded and built would go bankrupt
and many employees would lose their jobs.

"They created a false theory that the founders are the spirit
of the companies, and that if they were removed from the
companies they would go bankrupt," he said.

"So the robber barons are being hailed as the saviors of
labor.

"... It was said in the meeting room of Bina Graha (the
Presidential office) that Sinivasan, Syamsul Nursalim and Prajogo
are heroes and saviors who could not be disturbed by me as the
coordinating minister," he added, referring respectively to
founders of the Texmaco Group, Gadjah Tunggal Group and Barito
Group.

Kwik said that the bad conglomerates had launched a campaign
implying that the economics ministers under his coordination had
failed with their jobs and had been ineffective.

"What they have been saying is all lies," he said, pointing
out the achievements during his 10 months in office.

He said that the previous economics team had been successful
in reopening crucial ties with international lenders including
the International Monetary Fund, the Consultative Group on
Indonesia and the Paris Club of creditor nations.

He also said that macroeconomic indicators including gross
domestic product, inflation and exports had been encouraging.

He added that the crucial bank restructuring and
recapitalization program had also been completed.

"Since the economics ministers declined to cooperate with the
black conglomerates, they launched a campaign saying that we have
not been effective and lacked coordination," Kwik said.

Kwik expects the newly appointed Coordinating Minister for
Economic Affairs Rizal Ramli to be able to work effectively
because he seemed to have no "enemies" among the conglomerates.
(rei)