Indonesian vice-president: Government will weather political storm

Jakarta - Indonesian Vice President Boediono said Wednesday he was confident that the government would be able to weather a political storm over a graft scandal and a controversial bank bailout. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been under pressure to take strong action after revelations of an apparent high-level plot involving law enforcement agencies to undermine the country's anti-corruption agency sparked a public outcry.

Parliament has also demanded the government explain its decision to bail out a troubled small bank last year, after critics alleged that some of the money was used to save millions of dollars deposited by politically well-connected people.

The state audit agency said this week that part of the disbursement had no legal basis and the central bank, then led by Boediono, appeared to have manipulated data on the condition of the lender.

"These issues will be cleared up," Boediono told journalists. "I'm very optimistic this government will get through this very well."

"We received a landslide mandate and I think we'll stick to that and we'll stick to our promises, including a clean government," he said.

Yudhoyono began a second five-year term in October after a resounding election victory in July.

The government initially injected 1 trillion rupiah (106 million dollars) to boost liquidity at Bank Century, but the cost of the bailout later soared to 6.7 trillion rupiah.

Boediono said rescuing the bank was necessary to protect the economy amid the global financial crisis.

"I think we did the right thing and the result was good. If there are any questions we will answer," he said.

The Constitutional Court this month played taped recordings that anti-graft activists said revealed a plot to frame two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission, as part of what they described as a high-level conspiracy to weaken the panel.

Some critics have linked the alleged conspiracy and the bailout of Bank Century to election funding for Yudhoyono, which the president dismissed as slanderous.

Under mounting public pressure, Yudhoyono on Monday called for corruption charges against Commissioners Bibit Samad Riyanto and Chandra Hamzah to be dropped, citing lack of faith in the process among the public.

The issues have transfixed Indonesians for weeks.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296252,indonesian-vice-president-government-will-weather-political-storm.html.