NGOs intensify campaign against R&D policy

NGOs intensify campaign against R&D policy

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said on
Thursday that it had collected thousands of signatures supporting
calls for the government to annul an earlier decision to drop
charges against former bank owners.

Teten Masduki of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), which
is leading the coalition, said they would also pay a visit next
week to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), the
Attorney General's Office and the Financial Sector Policy
Committee (FSPC) to urge these institutions to immediately take
legal action against the errant bankers.

"We have collected thousands of signatures," he told a
conference, but declined to specify the exact number.

The ICW has launched a campaign to reject the government's
controversial "release and discharge" (R&D) policy over the past
couple of weeks.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree late last
year, which would allow former bank owners to walk away from
violating banking regulations in the past as long as they
remained cooperative in settling their huge amount of debts to
the state.

Bankers that were not cooperative would face legal sanctions.

The above institutions are in charge of carrying out the
presidential decree.

But the policy is seen as going against the public's sense of
justice.

The ex-bank owners have breached the legal lending limit
ruling by channeling most of the banks' funds to affiliated
business groups. This practice is seen as a major factor in
triggering the 1997 financial crisis, which prompted the
government to disburse billions of dollars to bail out the banks.
The huge bank bailout cost is being shouldered by taxpayers.

Many of the former bank owners have misused most of the Rp
144.5 trillion worth of funds channeled by the government to help
their banks stay afloat. And many of the indebted bank owners
have been reluctant to pay back the government's money. For four
years, IBRA, which is mandated to collect the money, has not been
able to fully recover the funds.

In a bid to persuade the debtors to quickly make repayments,
the government issued the controversial R&D policy, which
releases the ex-bankers from past banking crimes as long as they
cooperate in settling their debts.

"The R&D policy is grossly unfair," Teten said.

Abdul Fickar Hajar, a member of the coalition, said that the
errant bankers had to be punished for their crimes even if they
did repay their debts to the state.