Former Minister Of Finance: President Suharto Was Angry To See The BLBI Case, Asked The Perpetrators To Be Sent To Nusakambangan

Former Minister of Finance (Menkeu) of the Soeharto era Fuad Bawazier. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Misappropriation of Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) also angered President Suharto. Even President Suharto at that time asked the perpetrators to be sent to the Nusakambangan prison.

This surprising confession came from the former Minister of Finance (Menkeu) of the Soeharto era Fuad Bawazier at the General Hearing Meeting (RDPU) with the Special Committee (Pansus) for Bank Indonesia Liquidity Assistance (BLBI) of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) in Jakarta, Tuesday, June 20.

Previously, the DPD BLBI Special Committee invited Fuad Bawazier with Bank Central Asia (BCA) Budi Hartono in the RDPU. However, Budi Hartono sent a letter that he was abroad and admitted that he did not know anything about BLBI.

In the press release of the BLBI DPD Special Committee, Fuad Bawazier admitted that he was a bit surprised to receive an invitation from the BLBI Special Committee. Because it was an old problem that he was involved in directly at that time but it has not been completed until today.

"Honestly, I am tired of seeing this case again because it has not been completed in the past. I was summoned by commission IX on February 9, 2000. In essence, in the meeting I said that if there was no seriousness in handling this case, it would run aground in the middle of the road because there were many factors such as politics, law and chaos," said Fuad, who served as Minister of Finance at a crucial time, namely in mid-March 16 - May 21, 1998 when BLBI was disbursed to bail out banks affected by the public rush.

To the BLBI DPD RI Special Committee, Fuad Bawazier admitted that he had written a letter to President Suharto to request a follow-up to a report from the National Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN). Of the Rp109 trillion, almost 50 percent of the distribution was given to two banks, namely BDNI and Bank Danamon.

Of that amount, BDNI received loans of IDR 27.6 trillion and Bank Danamon of IDR 25.8 trillion.

However, based on reports from the International Audit Team, assets were reported after the BDNI examination were only Rp. 5.9 trillion and Bank Danamon was only Rp. 13.3 trillion. So at that time alone, only for the 2 banks the government had to bear a loss of Rp. 85 trillion from the amount of Rp. 48.2 trillion plus Rp. 37.3 trillion," said Fuad Bawazier.

According to Fuad, BLBI actually openly made criminal acts because at that time banks had deviated. For example, Bank Danamon and BDNI used a credit-taking scheme against their own banks by utilizing parking attendant employees and so on. The two banks compete in crimes.

"Due to this incident, BI should have taken action but there were big considerations because on the basis of fear of lowering public trust. Because of these considerations, BI took action to block the banks. If you look at President Suharto's response at that time he was very angry to see the BLBI case. It's good to send it to Nusa Kambangan," said Fuad.

In his presentation, Fuad Bawazier also explained about the BLBI recap bond (OR), namely a letter stating that the government owes it to a number of banks, which is a trick by the IMF so that the bank balance sheet looks positive. One of them, Fuad said, the government gave recap bonds of Rp. 67 trillion.

With this BLBI OR, the government must pay an interest rate of 10 percent every year to this day.

"Recap bonds actually have to be abolished, because this bank has been sick and helped by the government. So I think it will be abolished because it is enough," said Fuad Bawazier.

The chairman of the BLBI DPD RI Special Committee, Bustami Zainudin, in a statement after the RDPU, said he really appreciated the arrival of Fuad Bawazier because it meant respecting the DPD's efforts to make the BLBI and BLBI Recap Bonds clear.

Regarding Rp110 trillion BLBI, according to Bustami, today, the BLBI Task Force has taken care of it. However, from Fuad Bawazier's statement, there is actually something that can still be deepened, namely whether the behavior of the two rogue banks, namely BDNI and Danamon, was also carried out by 54 other banks.

"Pansus BLBI wants to dig deeper, and especially whether this also applies to other banks where in the letter there are 54 banks," said Bustami.

According to Bustami, the BLBI DPD Special Committee also needs to explore the recap bond policy received by BCA in 2003. So the Special Committee also invited Budi Hartono as the owner of BCA after the government sold him too that year.

"BCA is sold for IDR 5 trillion for 50 percent of the shares even though it holds recap bonds whose value is far above that. This includes Salim's debt at BCA which later becomes the government's debt. This is the importance of Pak Fuad and also Budi Hartono for us to invite, so that everything is clear," said Bustami.

However, Bustami regretted that when Fuad Bawazier confirmed his presence, Budi Hartono stated that he was not present on the grounds that he was not in Indonesia and admitted that he did not know anything about BLBI.

"Pak Budi Hartono should respect state institutions, we are fine to want to solve the problems of the Indonesian people, BLBI and these recap bonds must be clear and Pak Budi must support if he claims to be nationalist," said Bustami.