----- Original Message ----- From: BDG KUSUMO To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 11:01 AM Subject: [mediacare] Fw: Indonesia's Richest Man To Retire From Cabinet
Kiranya akan diganti oleh oligarch lain? Salam, bdg ----- Original Message ----- From: B.DORPI P. To: !B.DORPI P. Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:59 AM Subject: Re.: Indonesia's Richest Man To Retire From Cabinet http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/11/17/aburizal-bakrie-resigns-biz-cx_ee_1116bakrie.html 11.17.08, 3:30 PM ET Indonesia's Richest Man To Retire From Cabinet Eric Ellis Jakarta, Indonesia - Aburizal Bakrie is Indonesia's richest man, one of its most feared power brokers. For years, he has profitably--and controversially--presided as a kingmaker at the lucrative intersection of business and politics in a country often derided as among the world's most corrupt and difficult nations. But now, with anxious bankers circling his family's mining-to-telecoms business empire, the billionaire (his net worth was estimated at $5.4 billion last December; it's much less today) has told Forbes.com he is calling an end to his ministerial career. For the past four years Bakrie has served in the cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as coordinating minister for people's welfare, administering to Indonesia's many poor. Going forward, Bakrie says, his primary focus will not be business or politics but charity. Appointed by Yudhoyono in 2004, Bakrie says he will not be seeking a government post if the Yudhoyono administration is re-elected next April for a second five-year term. "I am retiring from the cabinet," Bakrie told Forbes.com in a wide-ranging interview at his Jakarta office on Friday, a day before his 62nd birthday. "I have already told [President Yudhoyono], and [Vice-President] Jusuf Kalla that I would like to serve in a charity, not in the government." "I have already contributed five years of my time. Now, I'd like to play with my grandchildren. I'd like to be responsible for my family's charitable foundation." The timing of Bakrie's decision comes as his family empire, Bakrie Brothers, is under daily siege from bankers and investors anxious about a massive debt burden that threatens to cripple the empire, Indonesia's largest. Shares in the Bakrie Group's component companies have fallen as much as 90% this year as the family negotiates to sell off its prized asset: a 35% stake in Indonesia's biggest mining company, Bumi Resources, to a consortium led by private equity firm Northstar Pacific, which is backed by the Fort Worth-based investor David Bonderman's Texas Pacific Group. Bumi's plight in the last month has gripped corporate Indonesia amid fears that its possible collapse could tip Indonesia's economy into a repeat of the turmoil that engulfed the country a decade ago during the Asian financial crisis. That nervousness has been reflected in the sharp fall of the Indonesian rupiah, down 30% against the U.S. dollar in just the last month. Bakrie's political career has been dogged by whispers about conflicts of interest between his role as a businessman and a government minister. Bakrie adamantly denies such rumors. Indeed, at one point in the interview, he solemnly placed his hand on his heart to pledge that, contrary to his reputation in Indonesia, he has not abused his political office by undertaking business activities "at any time" in the four years he has been a cabinet minister. Not many others view his ministerial career in Indonesia that way. Indeed, in the last month Jakarta's feisty media have been enthralled by stories of a feud between Bakrie and Indonesia's popular Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over how to handle the Bakrie crisis, particularly over a proposal for state-owned companies to bail out the Bakries. Mulyani was even reported to have threatened to resign over the matter, a claim she has neither denied nor confirmed. "I have never been at war with Sri Mulyani. We both are in the Cabinet, and the Cabinet is strong under the leadership of the President. He is doing a very good job. The Cabinet is unified. There are no splits in the Cabinet." Moreover, Bakrie denies putting pressure on the Jakarta Stock Exchange to suspend recent trading in Bakrie-related companies, lest they be sold down to levels that could trigger loan defaults. "Me? Never. Never. I am no longer a businessman. I know what [my family] is doing but I'm not a businessman at all." "I go to the company office to pray, yes. And if in the evening my brothers would like to report, yes, we discuss, that's all." Asked if the Bakrie Group is an example of the so-called best practices of transparency and corporate governance that Indonesia claims to covet, a combative Bakrie asked in turn "What you mean by transparency when you are talking about Goldman Sachs? When you're talking about Lehman Brothers? Citibank? General Motors? What transparency would you like to see?" "I think we are more transparent than all the names that I mentioned! Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, you name it! What transparency?" "When you talk about governance, do you think a company that is bankrupt should pay the CEO hundreds of millions of dollars? Look what happened to AIG. Is that governance we would like to talk about? We are more transparent, and we have more governance." "Life is tough at the moment for everybody." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.9.4/1793 - Release Date: 16.11.2008 19:58 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
