Rizal Ramli Claims To Have Saved Garuda Indonesia From Bankruptcy Without Using State Money When He Was A Minister In Gus Dur Era

Senior economist, Rizal Ramli. (Photo: Instagram @rizalramli.official)

JAKARTA - Rizal Ramli believes that PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk does not need to be bankrupted. This is because he claimed to have saved the national airline from bankruptcy when he was the Coordinating Minister for the Economy in the Gus Dur era.

In fact, said Rizal Ramli, at that time the rescue was carried out without using state money. According to him, there are other ways to save Garuda Indonesia but not by bankrupting it.

"Like I saved Garuda in 2000-2001 because I couldn't afford to pay (default) 1.8 billion US dollars, without using state money," he was quoted as saying in a post on his personal Instagram @rizalramli.official, quoted Monday, November 1.

Initially, Rizal said that at that time Garuda could not pay the credit amounting to US$1.8 billion. The reason, said Rizal, was because many of the costs of purchasing planes were marked up during the new order.

"As a result, a consortium of creditors led by German bankers threatened to confiscate all Garuda planes flying outside Indonesia," he said.

Rizal also admitted that he threatened to return the creditor consortium to the court in Frankfurt, Germany for receiving 'odious' interest from the mark-up financing. As a result, the bank consortium is threatened with falling share prices and having to pay fines.

"Therefore, the consortium finally asked for peace," he said.

However, Rizal said that he could only make peace if there was a credit restructuring of US$1.8 billion with a 'token guarantee' of US$100 million.

"The consortium initially insisted on asking for a full guarantee worth Rp1.8 billion US dollars. But in the end, it gave up," he explained.

Rizal Ramli recently highlighted the open attitude of former PT Garuda Indonesia Commissioner Peter F. Gontha regarding the conditions experienced by the national airline. He admitted that he was happy that Garuda's mark-up was opened to the public.

"Peter is a good friend and an old friend of mine. I'm happy that Peter has finally opened the mark-up Garuda. I don't ask why it wasn't opened before. I used to be what I am, transparent and uphold good governance," he explained.

According to him, what Peter did was very good and useful so that the diagnosis of the problems faced by Garuda Indonesia was more accurate.

"And it can be a lesson in the future," he said.