News Focus: CENTURY CASE MUST BE TAKEN TO COURT By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 5 (ANTARA) - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has to act more intensively to follow up the results of the House investigation into alleged violations in the extension of a bailout amounting to Rp6.7 trillion to Bank Century in late 2008.

After all, the House at its plenary on Wednesday had decided that there were alleged violations and crimes in the case which should be followed up by the government.

"The results of the House Century Inquiry Committee should motivate the Corruption Eradication Commission KPK) to act more intensively. What is important is to find those who are guilty and to punish them," professor of political and social sciences of the University of Indonesia (UI) Mawadi Rauf said.

The political observer said that the decision taken by the DPR plenary where it chose Option C represented the aspirations of the people. Option C stated that there were violations in the extension of the Bank Century bailout amounting to Rp6.7 trillion.

He made the comments in response to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's statement on Thursday that those who committed violations in the disbursement of the bailout should be acted upon but defended it as correct the government policy to bail out the ailing bank.

The president on Thursday night said a policy which was issued with a good intention could not be taken to court or prosecuted. "If in the implementation of the policy there are mistakes and deviations such as those found by the House Century Inquiry Committee, it should be ascertained the persons who are responsible for the mistakes and deviations," the president said.

Yudhoyono also reminded that it should be differentiated between administrative mistakes and legal violations, and the sanctions that would be taken should respect the principle of justice.

According to Maswadi Rauf what the President has to do now is to support next steps that had to be taken in the legal process because the DPR could not decide the names of persons who are obviously guilty.

The political scientist, however, criticized the president statement which said there was no problem with the Bank Century case.

The president's statement saying that there were no flows of funds from the bailout disbursement to a certain political party is actually ethical because there is no proof and the inquiry committee could not find any concrete evidence about it.

"What is unethical is that when the President said that there was no problem with the Bank Century case," he said referring to the House decision which stated that the bailout was problematic.

Therefore, banking observer Farial Anwar said the bailout case should be brought to the court to prove that the funds had been used correctly to assist the ailing bank. "The case must be taken to court to prove that the policy has been correctly taken and whether the bailout funds amounting to Rp6.7 trillion are really needed for a bank of that size (small)," he said on Friday.

He said that the case must be brought before the court so that the people would know the real problem regarding the bailout. There should be no discrimination between the Century case and those in the previous ones where former Bank Indonesia (BI) governors Burhanuddin Abdullah and Shahril Sabirin had to be put behind bars because they made wrong polices.

The same thing should also apply for the Bank Century case and all persons responsible for the violations and proven guilty by the court should also face legal sanctions. In this case, law enforcers are expected to uphold the law based on the legal principle without being affected by back-door deals.

"If the case is not taken to the court it would lead to the emergence of many cases where state officials would make polices at will," he said.

However, all of these will depend on the law enforcers. The House has done its jobs, and now the case has to go to the law enforcing agencies.

House Speaker meanwhile said that follow-up actions on the House recommendations would depend on the law enforcing agencies whether or not they would take a follow up action.

The DPR at a plenary session this week determined its final stance on the Bank Century scandal through a vote on two options: Option A which justified the government's bailout policy, and Option C which ridiculed it.

After the majority of the legislators voted for Option C, the DPR recommended that law enforcing institutions should take follow up actions, namely against those who were responsible for violations.

In the meantime, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has begun to respond to the alleged violations in the case.

Acting Chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Tumpak Hatorangan Pangabean said his commission was carrying out examinations over alleged corruption crimes in the Bank Century bailout case.

But the KPK leader could not yet ascertain when the examination status of the alleged corruption crimes in the bailout case could be raised to the investigation status. "It will all depend on evidence. We have to abide by the principle of legal proof in the criminal process. Of course in this case we have to collect enough pieces of evidence," he said.

Besides KPK, the National Police has also promised to follow up the outcome of the House of Representatives (DPR)' probe into the Bank Century scandal.

But the chief of the National Police's criminal investigation department, Commissioner General Ito Sumardi, said his men would also observe the principle of presumption of innocence in responding to the case.

Before summoning the people whose names were mentioned by the House's Bank Century Inquiry Committee , his men would first collect the needed facts and evidence.

"Although the House's special committee has mentioned the names of the people involved in the bank scandal, they do not automatically become suspects," he said recently.