Tim Lindsay does understand Indonesia

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See my previous post (8 November) on the current political situation in Indonesia.

Finally there is an intelligent article in the Australian press on the great battle underway in Jakarta.  As one might expect, it's written by someone other than an Australian journalist.  Tim Lindsay is an academic.

Here is the article.

However, there is one thing where I think I disagree with Lindsay.  He puts the Bank Century issue in his list of issues with the implication that it is just one more corruption scandal.  I suspect that something more complex is happening.

As I understand it, Bank Century was a (reasonably typical) badly run Jakarta bank.  It had the misfortune (perhaps good fortune) to get into trouble at the time the Global Financial Crisis hit late last year.  This meant that, in the rush and panic of the GFC, the banking regulators and the politicians had to consider the possible systemic impact of a bank failing.

Government decided to 'rescue' Bank Century.  Surprise, surprise - the rescue cost more than first thought.  So - there is now a clamour to find out who benefited - and to attack the people involved in the decision to rescue as 'corrupt'.  It is worth looking at who is being targetted - and who is doing the accusing.

The primary Bank Century targets are a lady called Sri Mulyani Indrawati (Minister of Finance) and Boediono (Vice President).  The main accusers are from the Indonesian parliament.

Sri Mulyani and Boediono are very prominent members of a group among the Indonesian elite sometimes referred to as 'the professionals'.  They are called this because of their education and approach to public administration - in summary, their commitment to professionalism.

The main alternative to professionalism is an approach that 'works things out pragmatically' based on more than just the facts and rules - taking into account interests, opinions, past obligations, future expectations .....  a bit like 'stakeholder' politics in Australia really.  And just like in Australia, professionalism is the natural enemy of pragmatic stakeholder politics.

I think Bank Century is actually being seen by the 'pragmatics' as an opportunity to attack the 'professionals' - with the hope being that, if the professionals get a bit of their own medicine in relation to corruption allegations, they will support the pragmatics in their wider battle to reign in the anti corruption forces at the KPK.
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