Petisi 50 calls Bapindo scandal a political crime
JAKARTA (JP): The scandal at Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) should be treated as a political crime because it involved abuses of power, leading critics of the government say.
The Petisi 50, an organization which includes former government and military officials, in a statement yesterday also criticized the House of Representatives (DPR) for allowing the Attorney General's office to take over the case and for failing to grasp its larger political implications.
"This is a political crime because it involved abuses of power, it is related to the way power is held, and the very credibility of the administration which has proclaimed to seek clean government," read the statement issued yesterday during the group's get together at the home of former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin.
This is the first time that the group has addressed the scandal since it became public in January with the first disclosure at the DPR.
What began as a potentially explosive political issue, the Rp 1.3 trillion ($620 million) scandal became strictly a legal matter once the Attorney General's office took over the initiative from the House.
The government is now building its case against four suspects -- businessman Eddy Tansil and three Bapindo directors -- in the scandal based on the 1971 anti-corruption law.
A number of senior government officials implicated in the scandal have not yet been arrested although they have been questioned by government investigators.
One of them is Sudomo, the chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council who wrote several letters of reference to Bapindo in support of Tansil's loan applications. Sudomo has resisted calls for his resignation or that he take a leave of absence to facilitate the official investigation.
"If I were the president, I'd fire Sudomo," Sadikin said of the retired navy admiral who also happens to be his next door neighbor on Jl. Borobudur in Central Jakarta. "As a matter of honor, he should resign."
Nice things
Sadikin, a former marine lieutenant general, had some nice things to say about Sudomo, who was also responsible for slapping the overseas travel ban against Petisi 50 members in the 1980s.
"He likes to help, but he often goes beyond the limit. He's definitely a hard worker," Sadikin said. "Maybe he has been an official for too long."
The Petisi 50 blamed the current rigid political system, which prevents effective control of the government by the people, for allowing the Bapindo scandal to occur.
"Power tends to corrupt, and in reality, corruption can occur in various forms such as bribery, extortion, collusion and nepotism," their statement said.
"The case happened because the mechanism of people's sovereignty does not work. The powerholder has eliminated the people's controlling power through the current political system."
Sadikin also urged the DPR to probe allegations that 49 companies have run up similarly massive debts with government banks.
The Petisi 50 statement criticized President Soeharto for going overboard with the debate about the leadership succession in 1998 instead of addressing the Bapindo scandal.
Sadikin related that Soeharto has addressed the succession issue on nine separate occasions in the last two months.
The statement said the succession issue must be seen from the perspective of people's sovereignty and people should therefore have the liberty to discuss it.
The ruling political group Golkar has refrained from joining in the debate, saying that the matter should be discussed closer to the next meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which elects the president, in 1998.
Among those attending the meeting at Sadikin's house were Petisi 50 members Siner Key Timu, Hugeng Imam Santoso, Suyitno Sukirno, Wachdiat Sukardi, A.M Fatwa, Rajab Ranggasoli and Azis Saleh. H.R. Dharsono, a former army general and a staunch critic of the president, was also present. (prs)