Marzuki calls on Sjahril to take leave

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Marzuki Darusman called on Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin to take a leave of absence once his court trial started.

Marzuki said Friday that if Sjahril continued to lead Bank Indonesia during his trial, it could affect the performance of the central bank.

Speaking to reporters following a ceremony at the Merdeka Palace, Marzuki also said that it was a normal procedure for a senior official of the state to take a temporary leave of absence during a court trial.

"The House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung has also asked Sjahril to temporarily step down," said Marzuki, who many believe to have played a major role in revealing the Bank Bali case to the public.

Akbar, who earlier gave full support to Sjahril after his release from custody by the Attorney General's Office, caused a surprise this week when he said that Sjahril should take a temporary leave of absence during the trial.

Sjahril had been detained by the Attorney General's Office for over five months for his alleged involvement in the high profile Bank Bali scandal that emerged last year.

The scandal centered on the illegal transfer of around US$80 million from Bank Bali to a company allegedly controlled by the Golkar Party, the ruling party at the time. The scandal helped to derail the attempt by former authoritarian president Soeharto's handpicked successor B.J. Habibie to be reelected.

Separately, Sjahril rejected on Friday the calls for him to temporarily step down.

Sjahril said that there was no reason for him to take a leave of absence as he would only be out of his office for a couple of hours to attend the court hearings that were expected to be held twice a week.

"The question of whether I should take a leave of absence will be discussed first by Bank Indonesia (board of governors). But if the trial runs in the usual way, it would not be a problem for my work," he told reporters following Friday prayers at Bank Indonesia headquarters.

"With a half-day hearing held twice a week, it will not be a problem because normally I also leave the office twice a week to visit other areas. So I don't have to step down," he added.

Sjahril's case has been listed for the Central Jakarta District Court. The trial is expected to start sometime in the middle of January.

Sjahril was first appointed to Bank Indonesia during the last years of the Soeharto administration. He was then reappointed during the Habibie administration when Bank Indonesia became an independent central bank.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has been demanding the resignation of Sjahril since he took over the country's leadership late last year. But Sjahril has declined to accede to Abdurrahman's demands.

Government officials have said that the President wanted to reshuffle the central bank which he claimed was permeated by corruption.

Under the existing central bank law, approved by the House in May 1999, the members of the board of governors of Bank Indonesia, including the governor, cannot be forced to leave office unless they have been proven to have committed a crime, become incapacitated or have voluntarily resigned.

The government has proposed a bill to the House on the amendment of the central bank law, which would remove the legal obstacles to Sjahril's ouster.

Under the bill, legislators will have the right to remove members of the board of governors if they fail to meet monetary targets or if they have been absent from office for at least three months.

The House is currently in recess. Legislators are expected to return in the middle of January 2001 to start deliberating the government bill.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli, who has been intensively lobbying legislators over the bill, expressed optimism this week that the House would complete the amendment of the central bank law in January.

The amendment process is been widely followed by various parties including the International Monetary Fund.

Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo said earlier this week that the IMF wanted the House to first complete the amendment of the central bank law before it disbursed its next loan tranche to Indonesia.

Prijadi said that this was because the central bank law was crucial to maintaining investor confidence.

The Fund was supposed to disburse around $400 million to the country late this month, but has recently delayed the disbursement without providing clear explanations.

The IMF has promised to provide the current administration with some $5 billion in loans to help finance the country's three-year economic reform program. (rei)