Indonesia's Teflon tycoon Aburizal Bakrie has survived controversy in business and politics Jan 14th 2010 | JAKARTA | From The Economist print edition
ALTHOUGH Aburizal Bakrie, one of Indonesia's most prominent businessmen, lost his job as Indonesia's welfare minister last year, he is still managing to generate lots of political controversy. In October he took the reins of Golkar, the party created by Indonesia's former strongman, Suharto. Now he is trying to reshape the cabinet in his own image, calling for the suspension of the vice-president and the finance minister over their role in the bail-out of a local bank in 2008. Golkar lawmakers spent much of this week interrogating the pair in public hearings. Mr Bakrie's family business, meanwhile, continues to pull off improbable feats. In November a consortium it led outmanoeuvred state-owned firms and a local rival to secure a stake in one of the world's biggest copper and gold mines, on the island of Sumbawa. The month before China Investment Corporation, a Chinese sovereign-wealth fund, had lent Bumi Resources, a big coal-mining firm in which the family owns a stake, $1.9 billion. The deals crowned the family business's recovery from near collapse in 2008, when a plunge in the shares of six Bakrie-linked firms prompted the Indonesia Stock Exchange to close for three days. Even before that narrow escape, Mr Bakrie was notable as one of the few tycoons from Suharto's era to have managed to preserve his businesses and political clout despite the Asian crisis of 1997 and the transition to democracy the following year. Mr Bakrie's continued influence is the cause of much discussion in Jakarta. Bakrie-controlled companies cover the breadth of Indonesia's economy, including mining, oil and gas, palm oil, property, telecommunications and finance. So Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, stirred concerns about conflicts of interest when he appointed Mr Bakrie as minister with overall responsibility for the economy in 2004. Although he was put in charge of social welfare and public services instead after a reshuffle in 2005, the controversy only grew. In 2006 a devastating mudflow erupted near a site in Java where Lapindo Brantas, a Bakrie-controlled company, was drilling for gas. The mud continues to flow today, and has displaced more than 16,000 people, swamping entire villages, factories and towns in toxic sludge. Lapindo Brantas disavows any responsibility, despite claims that it had failed to use appropriate safety equipment while drilling. It insists the mudflow was triggered by an earthquake three days beforeĀan explanation that has been dismissed by numerous international experts. Lapindo still has not compensated most of those displaced by the mudflow despite twice being ordered to do so by Mr Yudhoyono. A police investigation limped along for more than three years before officials announced last August that they were dropping the case. Soon after a special investigative committee of the House of Representatives, led by a member of Golkar, declared, with little scientific backing, that the mudflow was a natural disaster. Mr Bakrie kept his job through all this. Although he has since left the cabinet, other members of Golkar are still in it. The party remains in the governing coalition despite its spirited attacks on the vice-president and the finance minister, and its support of an investigation of the president's Democrat Party, which have been accused of embezzling government funds. Mr Bakrie rejects any suggestion that he wields undue influence. In 2008 he threatened to sue Tempo, one of the country's leading political magazines, after it ran a critical article featuring a caricature of his face with the number "666" on his forehead. By the same token, he has rejected the claim of Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the finance minister, that Golkar is pursuing her only because she has resisted special treatment for Bakrie family firms. He says he simply wants to hold public officials to account. Some observers believe his desire to serve the public good is so strong he may even run for president himself one day. http://www.economist.com/people/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15278524
