Kwik vows to speak out against bad conglomerates

JAKARTA (JP): Former economic minister Kwik Kian Gie promised on Wednesday to continue speaking out against "bad conglomerates" in his new position as a member of the House of Representatives.

Kwik, who resigned from the Cabinet last month just before it was reshuffled by President Abdurrahman Wahid, however, doubted his crusade would be anymore effective from outside the Cabinet than it was from inside, citing a lack of all-round political support.

"It won't be any more effective. But I will continue to speak out nevertheless," Kwik told The Jakarta Post.

"The situation is so hopeless," he lamented, saying that the Attorney General's Office and the police lacked the political will as well as the competency to go after the conglomerates, whom he accused of robbing trillions of rupiahs of public money through "financial engineering".

Kwik refrained on Wednesday from calling the business empires "black" conglomerates as he has done in the past, recognizing criticism that the term was a racist one.

Kwik, who represents the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) at the House of Representatives, believes that there has been a strong and consistent campaign against him since the day he was appointed to the Cabinet in October.

The campaign was organized by conglomerates, he said, and mostly took the form of character assassination and direct lobbying of the President. It continued with intensity till the day he resigned from the Cabinet in August, he said.

The campaign against him ranged from discrediting his educational background and the country's economic record during his tenure as the government's chief economist, to criticism of the alleged lack of coordination and unity in his economic team and his past limited associations with businesses, he said.

These allegations were baseless but were used as a means to oust him from the Cabinet, he said, stressing that Indonesia's economy made remarkable progress during the 10 months he was in the government.

Admitting that his campaign against "bad conglomerates" would not likely lead to any court convictions, Kwik said he would speak out in the House.

"It's better than keeping quiet. It will at least serve as a reminder to the public of the problem, and hopefully discourage others from committing the same sin," he said.

Kwik upset big conglomerates in the last weeks before his resignation by calling for a complete review of the master of settlement and sales agreements signed by five conglomerates.

The agreements essentially stated that conglomerates agreed to give up control of their business assets equal to the amount of their debts.

Kwik said their assets later turned out to be way overvalued to the tune of Rp 80 trillion ($9.6 billion), which will be burdened to the government and therefore taxpayers.

Losses to the government from the unpaid debts of all the conglomerates could potentially reach Rp 250 trillion, he said.

Kwik took some comfort in the knowledge that the House last month agreed to his proposal to review the agreements.

"The matter is now in the hands of the House," he said.

He may well lead the campaign in the House now that he has been assigned by his party to serve in commission IX, which deals with finance and development matters.

The Dutch-trained economist also promised to resume writing newspapers columns, something he regularly did before he became a minister in October. His weekly articles, which appeared in Kompas and The Jakarta Post, were very popular because of their sharp criticism and analyses of the country's economic situation.

He said his nine-month stint in the Cabinet had been a real eye-opener because although he already knew the economic problems facing Indonesia -- including corruption and unpaid corporate and banking debts -- he did not know their real extent until he had direct access to the statistics.

"The reality was shocking," he said. "I learned a lot."

His tenure in the Cabinet looks set to serve him well in his new role in the House, which he said he intends to use critically in dealing with the government. "I know the (economic) figures off the top of my head. Perhaps it's an unfair advantage," he said. (emb)