Muninggar Sri Saraswati – The House of Representatives' investigation of the Bank Century bailout was unlikely to result in the impeachment of Vice President Boediono, political analysts said on Tuesday.
"I'm afraid the House special committee has played too many political games, thus rendering the investigation ineffective," said political expert Maswadi Rauf of the University of Indonesia.
He also noted that the House was dominated by the Democratic Party's ruling coalition. Maswadi said the House's special committee would not dare to conclude that the government's decision to use Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) to bailout the bank was illegal, even if the Constitutional Court had recently issued guidelines outlining the procedures involved in impeachment.
Constitutional Court expert Refly Harun also expressed doubt that Boediono could be impeached, admitting however that the House may initiate a motion of impeachment against Boediono for "conducting a disgraceful deed" such as violating his vice presidential oath, or simply being dishonest when grilled by the House special committee. "It may sound petty, but this is politics," Refly said.
The statements by Maswadi and Refly come a week after the National Mandate Party (PAN) – armed with just two votes on the 30-strong special committee – provided a boost to the government coalition by reversing its previous position and stating that the failure of Bank Century would have posed a "systemic" threat to the country's financial system in 2008, therefore warranting the bailout.
Fahmi Badoh, coordinator of the political division of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said the investigation of the bailout must continue, and that people would pressure the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to maintain its independence in its own ongoing investigation. "Justice must prevail," he said.
Maswadi said he could only expect the KPK to investigate whether or not the law was broken in the disbursement of the funds to bail out the troubled bank, and prosecute those deemed responsible. But he said its investigation wouldn't necessarily trigger an impeachment of Boediono.
"There will be one or two who will be punished, but not the vice president. It could be the finance minister [Sri Mulyani Indrawati] or others," Maswadi said.
Sri Mulyani approved the bailout, along with Boediono, as chairwoman of the Financial System Stability Committee (KSSK) in November 2008.