Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling coalition has been rocked by a split on party lines at the climax of an investigation into last year's 6.7 trillion rupiah ($800 million) Bank Century bailout.
Dr Yudhoyono's main partner in the national consensus government, the Golkar party, refused to toe the line with the President's Democrat Party on whether the rescue was warranted.
Democrat lobbyists had spent recent days trying to convince Golkar powerbrokers, including party chief Aburizal Bakrie, one of the country's most influential business figures, to join them in finding the deal had involved no wrongdoing. However, in a second day of torrid scenes in the parliament, Golkar played its hand as expected, declaring the bailout illegal.
Because the parliamentary committee, which has been conducting hearings for the past four months, was unable to reach a consensus, the matter was likely to go to an open vote in the 560-seat house. But the damage to Dr Yudhoyono's coalition went beyond losing the direct support of Golkar, even as other smaller groups, including the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP), remained neutral in a series of faction-based speeches.
The President, who is due in Australia next week with a string of ministers in his entourage to sign partnership and aid deals, will now be fighting to keep his grip on power in the fractious house.
The developments could help a push towards criminal investigations against Vice-President Boediono, who was central bank governor when it went ahead with the bailout, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who as head of the national Financial System Stability Commission was responsible for its implementation.
But any criminal proceedings against Professor Boediono or Dr Indrawati, while possible, remain on the distant horizon, with any parliamentary finding having no automatic flow-on to criminal proceedings.
Further, Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission has already completed bailout-related prosecutions against individuals including Century's former owner, Robert Tantular.
Prosecutors found in that case that major depositors in the bank were able to withdraw their funds even as the government bailout went ahead, making the process essentially a state-sponsored rescue of individual fortunes.
However, this aspect of the rescue has barely been examined in the four months of live-televised hearings by the parliamentary commission.
Instead, members chose to question the propriety of Professor Boediono and Dr Indrawati, leading to speculation the entire process was a Golkar-sponsored charade designed to remove the Finance Minister from her job.
The erudite and articulate Dr Indrawati has long been at loggerheads with Golkar's Mr Bakrie, the businessman whose family empire includes the company behind a "mud volcano" disaster in East Java that has left thousands homeless, but for which he refuses to take responsibility.
Dr Indrawati is seen to have angered Mr Bakrie by leading a drive to establish transparency in the country's business sector. The President was this week forced to yet again defend his Finance Minister and Vice-President by declaring he was personally "responsible for (the bailout)" because "although I did not issue an instruction or directive... I approved of the act".
His declaration was read as a warning to Mr Bakrie, who is facing massive tax fraud charges, not to continue with his campaign against Dr Indrawati.