The BI saga

Money, power, greed and political blackmail. This is the stuff that Jeffrey Archer's best-selling political novels are made of. These elements exist in the long-running confrontation between Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin and President Abdurrahman Wahid. True to Archer's style, this story is a sequel to an earlier scandal that would have made an equally successful novel: the Bank Bali case. By the looks of it, this saga has only just started to get very interesting at a time when public interest in the Bank Bali scandal is tapering off.

On Monday, Sjahril was named a suspect in the Bank Bali scandal. His name has been mentioned by several suspects and witnesses in the scandal. Some testified to his presence in one or two meetings at a five-star hotel in Jakarta which led to the disbursement of taxpayers' money to two Golkar political operatives. He has repeatedly denied the testimony, but was certainly in charge at the time the central bank decided to disburse the Bank Bali money which eventually found its way into the coffers of the two Golkar operatives. The attorney general decided, after humming and hawing, to pin Sjahril on this.

This novel is not at all about Sjahril. This is about power, money, greed and blackmail. The real motive behind the government's latest maneuver against the central bank governor, whose independence from the government is protected by a 1999 legislation, is to oust him and put someone more submissive under the President. What lies behind that desire to bring Bank Indonesia firmly under the government's control is anybody's guess, at least at this stage of the story.

We have learned that the President has tried since December various means, including the carrot and stick method, to have Sjahril replaced. He turned down ambassadorial or other lucrative posts offered by the President. He also ignored the government's threat to initiate a criminal investigation against him over the Bank Bali scandal.

Now that the government has made good on its threat, Sjahril still refuses to stand down. On Tuesday, he won the support of House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung. By the 1999 Law on Bank Indonesia, only the House has the power to appoint a central bank governor. The House can also replace a governor if he/she is proven guilty of committing a crime, voluntarily resigns or is declared unable to perform his/her job. None of this applies to Sjahril. The governor has the law, and the House behind him. Legally, he can keep his job. Whether he will still be able to discharge his tasks effectively in light of the criminal investigation is another matter.

So the stage is set for a confrontation between the President and the Bank Indonesia governor. Nobody knows for sure who are the good guys or the bad guys in this story. But we do know that both the President and the central bank governor are guilty of violating political ethics.

Sjahril must surely realize that the constant allegations about his role in the Bank Bali scandal has affected not only his own performance and image, but also those of the institution he is running. He may have the law behind him, but the honorable thing for him to do, for the country's economy sake, is to step aside, or to step down from the governoship.

The President for his part is guilty of conducting political blackmail by the way he has treated Sjahril. His political maneuvers to oust Sjahril amounts to an outright intervention of the central bank in contravention of the 1999 law.

While we watch with fascination the confrontation between the two men develop in the coming days, weeks, or even months, there are already many victims in this long-running saga. More than 210 million of them. The battle between the President and the Bank Indonesia governor cannot be good for the already embattled rupiah. The economy is bound to suffer even more, and with it, the fate of 210 million people in this country.

At this stage, we should probably invite Jeffrey Archer over to Indonesia to help tie up the many loose ends to this saga, and bring this story to a quick and happy conclusion for the millions of innocent bystanders who are falling prey to this unnecessary political battle. The way this is developing, there are no real heroes in this story. But there are millions of real victims.