Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Tension is building three days before the parliament's plenary session on the Bank Century bailout inquiry, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's aides busy over the long weekend telling the public there was no ulterior motive to the bailout decision.
Yudhoyono's special adviser for legal affairs, Denny Indrayana, said Saturday that certain coalition parties had asked the President to help them clear legal hurdles in return for their loyalty.
"The parties proposed to change their stance on the Century case if the President 'helped' drop legal cases against figures from the parties," he told The Jakarta Post.
Denny refused to disclose the parties or the legal cases. Yudhoyono, he said, would never entertain such negotiations.
"It has been his principle that legal matters are not negotiable and that he should not intervene. The President did not even step in when a very close relative faced charges," Denny said, referring to Yudhoyono's in-law, Aulia Pohan.
Aulia, a former Bank Indonesia deputy governor, is serving a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for a 2003 graft case.
Of the six parties in the government coalition, only the Golkar Party and the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) are opposed to Yudhoyono's Democratic Party with respect to their conclusions on the bailout inquiry.
In their conclusion on the case, both Golkar and PKS insist that Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati's decision to issue the controversial bailout was wrong.
Golkar legislator Ade Komaruddin, who is also a member of the House inquiry committee, said Denny's statement was not Golkar's concern. "If his comments were directed at us, then I'd say it's not true," he told the Post. Ade said his party would not change its stance regarding the case.
Recently, Golkar politician and Riau Islands Governor Ismeth Abdullah was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for his role in a graft case pertaining to the procurement of fire engines.
Last week, the chairman of inquiry committee, Idrus Marham, and legislator Setya Novanto, both from Golkar, were reported to the National Police on graft allegations pertaining to the transportation of 60,000 tons of rice in 2003.
Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie has also been under the spotlight after the Directorate General of Taxation reported that several companies in which the Bakrie Group has shares were being investigated over Rp 1.2 trillion in taxes.
PKS' Mukhammad Misbakhun, one of the sponsors of the bailout inquiry, is also accused of holding fictitious letters of credit from Bank Century. Presidential aide Andi Arief said owning the letter constituted a banking crime and that he would file a case with the police.
Misbakhun's counterpart Andi Rahmat denied the accusation, saying that the letter of credit belonging to one of Misbakhun's company was not fictitious but defaulted.
Apart from alleging Misbakhun's letter of credit, Andi and another presidential aide, Velix Wanggai, were busy last week approaching senior politicians in a bid, observers say, to counter similar moves by political opponents.
On Saturday, Andi and Velix briefly met with former People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
They have also met with noted Muslim cleric Ahmad Syafii Maarif and former House speaker Akbar Tandjung.