Pure business?

Pure business?

The Bank Bali scandal -- although some people prefer to call it a crime -- is happening at a time when the nation is in a state of deep distress. This scandal contradicts all the verbal statements of good intention and commitment to the nation which our businesspeople and authorities have been making. A certain Golkar member, who happens to be a businessman and who also engages in politics, Setya Novanto, together with an associate, who happens to be a suspect in a credit manipulation case at Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Joko S. Tjandra, quite effortlessly managed to get Bank Indonesia (the Central bank) to disburse payable funds belonging to Bank Bali which are guaranteed by the former.

If other banks have found it hard to get their guaranteed payables dispensed by the Central bank, how could it have been so easy for Setya Novanto and Joko S. Tjandra? A powerful invisible hand must have helped the two businessmen make it difficult for either the Minister of Finance or Bank Indonesia to stop the deal. Setya Novanto, Joko S.Tjandra and the number of officials whose names we will certainly learn sooner or later are showing little concern for this case, which is beginning to take on the dimensions of a crime.

The Bank Bali scandal is rocking and, at the same time, testing the integrity of our power holders. We are waiting for the issue to be cleared up altogether. It would be utterly impudent for those who are involved to regard the whole case as purely business.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta