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)