Laksamana Sukardi: "I will resign if Salim enters BCA again"
There may well be a soft chair in his office, but Laksamana Sukardi sits in the hot seat. This is because he appears to have the glamorous job of administering what looks like unlimited amounts of money. As the State Minister for State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Sukardi, 46, is not only in charge of over 130 state-run businesses, but he is also responsible for the overall performance of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA). In sum, these state-owned assests have a combined worth of nearly Rp1,500 quintillion (figure followed by 18 zeros)—as compared with the 2002 national budget, which is only worth Rp300 quintillion.
February 12, 2002
Currently, these assets are in serious trouble. The government has already set a specific target to sell IBRA assets. This includes BCA (Bank Central Asia), which is suspected of having the potential to involve hot money. Then there is the matter of the planned replacement of SOEs' boards of directors, marked by bribery and the interference of brokers competing for the sale of those important posts. Word has it that insiders at Sukardi's very
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