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