Minangkabau community visits Sjahril
Minangkabau community visits Sjahril
JAKARTA (JP): Under the banner of Minangkabau brotherhood, several figures of West Sumatran origins offered bail for their detained "kindred brother" Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin.
Describing themselves as members of a so called Minangkabau cultural movement in Greater Jakarta, Gebu Minang, they visited Sjahril at the Attorney General's Office on Wednesday to give him moral support.
Among them were former minister of manpower Fahmi Idris who said the brotherhood was also slated to meet with Attorney General Marzuki Darusman on Friday to ask that Sjahril be released on bail.
"One of our intentions in meeting Marzuki is to organize a guarantee to all Minangkabau people residing in Greater Jakarta for an exchange to a city arrest or a house arrest (for Sjahril)," Fahmi told journalists.
The head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Lawyers' Association, John Pieter Nazar, who was also one of the visitors on Wednesday claimed that more than 100 people have signed a letter to strengthen the request.
Also seen were former National Police chief Lt. Gen (ret) Awaloedin Djamin, former minister of health Farid Anfasa Moeloek and former minister of public works Harun Zein.
Fahmi further claimed that people of various ethnicities, not just from West Sumatra, were concerned about Sjahril's detention.
"As for myself, let's just say I am here to represent a sense of justice which has been disturbed," he remarked.
Sjahril was detained for allegedly paving the way for an illegal transfer of Rp 904 billion of Bank Bali's defaulted loans to a private company linked to the then ruling Golkar party in 1999.
Part of the money is suspected to have been used to bankroll then president B.J. Habibie's renomination bid.
Sjahril's first detention order of 20-days is to remain in effect for another two-weeks.
Earlier in the day the group met the House of Representatives' speaker Akbar Tandjung to obtain clarification on the legislative body's stance on the matter.
Fahmi claimed that he had been told by Akbar that the President had informed him during a meeting on Jl. Irian in May that this process had been contrived in order to remove Sjahril.
"From Akbar's explanation, we can conclude that this matter appears to have been designed by Gus Dur, who insists on forcing Sjahril to resign from his post," Fahmi claimed. (bby)