Jakarta – While the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was pointing its finger at Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and at previous central bank governor Boediono in the Bank Century case, the party's chief patron Taufik Kiemas was telling a different tale.
Taufik, who was also the People's Consultative Assembly speaker, said Wednesday that he had suggested to the PDI-P not to mention any names deemed responsible in the case.
"The House [of Representatives'] inquiry team [on Bank Century case] are not law enforcers. We should consider people innocent until legal processes find them guilty," he said. But his suggestion was ignored by the party and apparently by his wife.
In its final conclusion, the PDI-P named lots of people – including Mulyani and incumbent Vice President Boediono – as being responsible for various stages of the story of the Century saga fromthe 2004 merger until the 2008 bailout.
PDI-P lawmaker Ganjar Pranowo, a member of the inquiry team, said the decision to mention names had been approved by party chairwoman and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, with the wife of Taufik telling her party to tell the tale their way.
However Taufik said his position was his personal opinion. When asked why he took a different stance from his party's position, he responded: "Am I not allowed to [have a contrasting opinion]?"
A PDI-P legislator said earlier that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party had offered three to five ministerial posts to the party in a bid to pull the PDI-P into a new position on the case.
When asked to confirm his views on these issues, Taufik replied, "I wish I could be a minister."
Taufik's appointment as the Assembly speaker had to be vetted by an internal party discussion before Megawati finally gave the nod for him to take up the post.
It was not the first time Taufik and Megawati have gone separate ways. When Yudhoyono was about to announce his Cabinet members, Taufik had said that PDI-P would be ready to join the government. However, Megawati did not make any move and the deadline passed.
Taufik's move to cuddle up to the Democratic Party seemed contrary to his past coldness to Yudhoyono during Megawati's administration.
In 2004, Taufik had said Yudhoyono, then coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister, was "being childish" when he spoke in the media on his presidential ambitions without informing Megawati. Yudhoyono then defeated her in the presidential election later that year.
Taufik told the press that he and his deputy speakers would meet with Yudhoyono at the presidential palace on Thursday. "We want to discuss the [Assembly] procedures to enact the technical draft regulation on impeachment which will be tabled at the next plenary meeting on March 1," he said, adding that one chapter of the draft regulation detailed the procedures for the removal of an incumbent president and/or vice president.
"It is a coincidence that the [Assembly's] ad hoc committee is finishing [the draft technical regulation] faster than we first estimated," he replied, when asked why the Assembly was finishing the draft regulation at the same time that the inquiry team was making its final report on the Bank Century case.