Indonesian’s parliament called for a criminal investigation into a US$715 million government bank bailout in a vote that analysts said yesterday created the greatest political crisis of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s six-year term.
Yudhoyono was expected to respond to the parliament’s decision in a televised speech to the nation late yesterday.
“The president will deliver a speech at 8pm at the state palace,” Yudhoyono’s spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said, without giving further details.
The nation’s independent anti-corruption commission already has been looking into the November 2008 bailout of Bank Century, so the parliamentary vote late on Wednesday was a largely symbolic gesture on an issue that has dominated the country’s politics in recent months.
The main audit agency has alleged irregularities in the bailout, which sparked violent protests on Tuesday outside the parliament building, where demonstrators hurled rocks and police responded with tear gas.
“In his six years as president, there has not been a challenge to his authority that has been this open and this frontal,” said Sunny Tanuwidjaja, a political analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.
In a further sign the government was facing a crisis, two parties allied with Yudhoyono supported the call for a criminal probe. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Golkar are key coalition partners and hold top posts in Yudhoyono’s Cabinet.
Another analyst said the affair could lead to a shake-up of the government.
“It’s placed enormous strain on the government, and the coalition may not survive,” said Greg Fealy, an Australian National University expert on Indonesian politics. He said the rift could lead to the removal of eight of the 34 Cabinet ministers and possibly force the two dissenting parties out of the government altogether.
The ministers most closely involved in the bailout are key Yudhoyono allies: Vice President Boediono, a former central bank governor who goes by a single name, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. They have denied any wrongdoing.
Indrawati said she would not step down.
“The truth is my main priority ... In this case, I’ve to carry out the state mandate to protect the people, manage problems and handle various crises which could occur,” she said.
Boediono told reporters only that “In every age, God has always sided with the truth.”
Following the parliamentary inquiry, 325 legislators in the 560-seat House of Representatives voted for a criminal probe.
Another 212, mostly from Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, argued the bailout had necessarily prevented a meltdown of the country’s financial system.
National police spokesman Major-General Edward Aritonang said police would follow the recommendations and launch an investigation. A previous police investigation was closed without filing charges.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique