Insight:
The Century and Bumi cases: Who is the slayer, who is the victim?
Wimar Witoelar , Jakarta | Wed, 01/13/2010
After the disastrous machine gun attack on the Togolese national football team’s bus on the Angola border, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said the African Cup of Nations should continue despite the fact the attack killed several people. “I don’t believe you can just stop a competition because of an incident as I think that would reward the people who provoked the incident and could mean that any competition is stopped at any time,” added Wenger, who has Arsenal players Alex Song (Cameroon) and Emmanuel Eboue (Ivory Coast) playing for their national teams in the finals. Arsenal Wenger has got it right. It’s not only about winning. It’s about doing the right thing.
There is more than a touch of surrealism in the events unfolding today. We remember that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) won his second term with a majority of more than 60 percent. In addition, he has done nothing wrong. Even if he was at fault in the Bank Century allegations, it happened in 2008, the year before the political parties initiated the parliamentary proceedings supported by the media group that is owned by tax evaders.
Many parliamentarians who now allege fraud in the Bank Century bailout agreed with the bailout decision at the time it was taken. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono should be the last people in any Indonesian government to be accused of dishonesty, with clean records for the lifespan of their careers. So why are these good people being vilified by politicians, student activists and people on the street?
You need search no further back than 2001 for a possible answer. The night before last New Year’s Eve, the nation lost a great man who held the presidency for less than two years until he was ousted in 2001. In those brief years, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid succeeded in launching the greatest reforms in Indonesia’s civil society. Through his leadership and the support of many good people, Indonesia became an overnight leader in the promotion of pluralism, democracy and humanity. Gus Dur is by all measures a hero.
Although he lost the presidency, Gus Dur was elevated to become the keeper of the nation’s conscience. He was a victim of a cabal, a small group of secret plotters. Who were the plotters? Parliament leaders, the media, big money, misguided students and paid activists. There is a strong sense of déjà vu. The cast of characters in 2010 is a bit different from 2001 but the story is the same.
SBY is not Gus Dur, but they are both popular leaders facing vindictive politicians. Substitute Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie for Amien Rais in the leading role and you have the same scenario now as we had back then. Bulog-Bruneigate was the excuse for wanton attacks on the president in 2001 and Bank Century is the issue in 2010. Buloggate was never proven as a crime and neither will the Bank Century case. Amien Rais went for straight impeachment instead, explaining that it didn’t matter what he was guilty of, he had been removed. Aburizal may yet desert Century and aim at impeachment, all or nothing.
According to the press, student groups and activists plan to hold rallies to pressure President Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono to step down. They demand that SBY and Boediono resign because the students feel they can no longer expect anything from them. Many do not agree, but they do not have the funding to resist, nor do they own political parties and television stations. The economy needs the smart and impeccably clean finance minister, but she is drowned out by meaningless screams.
Where are the anti-Wahid activists of 2001 now? Everybody mourns the passing of Gus Dur whom the demonstrators derided, insulted and forced out of office. Students joined demonstrations led by Amien Rais in March of 2001. Where have they all gone? Will the activists of 2010 also disappear once their cynical job is done? Activists announced they would take to the streets in a force of 100,000 people last month on International Anti-Corruption Day. Fears disappeared when only 5,000 demonstrators showed up in Jakarta. A group of 50 threw stones at a KFC outlet in Makassar believing the neoliberal corporation was involved in Bank Century. Why such a disappointing turnout? It was raining, the leaders later explained.
The political battle could become serious if a TV expose gathers momentum, if a station presents a clinical overview of the tax fraud cases pending against the Bakrie Group. To make a long story short, it involves an amount that may well reach Rp 10 trillion (US$1.09 billion) in tax and royalty debts and fines for tax evasion. The Bakrie Group has declined to comment so we do not know their side of the story. But if the allegations are true then the money is much greater than the alleged Bank Century bailout cost, which is clearly retrievable. So where are the criminals? In the Century case, in the Bakrie case, in both, or in none of the above? As the chorus lament in Sophocles’ Antigone: “Who is the slayer, who the victim? Speak”.
The public wants to know. Not because we want to choose one above the other, not for the sake of picking the winner. The public has no partisan agenda because it’s not only about winning; it’s about doing the right thing.
* The writer is a public relations consultant with InterMatrix Communications and the host of WIMAR Live, a public affairs talk show on MetroTV.
Apa pandangan seorang gadis umur 8 tahun ketika melihat fakta hidup -bahkan mengalaminya- kalau hitam tidaklah hitam dan putih tidaklah putih? Itulah yang dialami Scout, dan kakaknya Jem, ketika ayah mereka menjadi pembela seorang kulit hitam.
