Kristi Poerwandari
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia
“In a political system that does not allow the presence of political ethics, people like me cannot exist. Because when I promise as a public official, I promise myself I do not want to make people corrupt. How painful. I never shed tears to uphold this principle. As long as I do not betray the truth, do not deny conscience, can still maintain my dignity, then I win.”
(Sri Mulyani in her last speech as Minister of Finance, 2010)
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, born 26 August 1962, is a professional economist with no political affiliation. She has currently served as the Minister of Finance of Indonesia since 2016, having previously served in the same post from 2005 to 2010.
Sri Mulyani was selected as Indonesian Finance Minister in 2005 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. One of her first acts was to fire corrupt tax and customs officers in the department. She was known as a tough reformist and was largely credited with strengthening Indonesia’s economy, increasing investments and steering Southeast Asia’s largest economy through the 2007-2010 financial crisis.
During her tenure, Indonesia recorded 6.6% economic growth in 2007, its highest rate since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The growth was down in 2008 to 6% because of the global economic slowdown. In 2006, just one year after being selected, she was named Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney magazine. In 2007 and 2008, Emerging Markets newspaper selected Sri Mulyani as Asia’s Finance Minister of The Year.
In 2008 there was a global financial crisis affecting Indonesia. The issue of liquidity in some banks raised a wave of public panic. Bak Century was finally declared a failed and potentially systemic bank by the Financial Systems Stability Committee chaired by Sri Mulyani and was bailed out with up to 6.7 trillion rupiah.
Bank Century’s rescue decision was a time bomb for Sri Mulyani. She was harshly criticized by the House of Representative of crime with the bailout of the bank. Sri Mulyani explained that if the decision was not taken, there could have been a systemic impact that could have destroyed the Indonesian economy. In addition, the decision did not use state budget funds, purely accessing the managed fund of the Deposit Insurance Corporation.
With very strong political pressure due to the Century case, she finally chose to resign from her duties as Minister of Finance in May 2010. On 5 May 2010, Mulyani was appointed as one of three Managing Directors of the World Bank Group, overseeing 74 nations in Latin America, Caribbean, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa. Her resignation as Minister of Finance was viewed negatively and caused financial turmoil in Indonesia. Some called the move as “Indonesia’s loss, and the World’s gain”.
On 27 July 2016, Sri Mulyani was reappointed as Minister of Finance in a cabinet reshuffle by President Joko Widodo. She was designated Finance Minister of Asia by Finance Asia in 2017, and in February 2018, was named The Best Minister in The World by World Government Summit held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
According to Sri Mulyani, the key to becoming a leader anywhere is to have competence, integrity and reputation. When these three things are achieved, people will have respect. With respect, leaders can exercise “the hows” as leaders: to connect, to motivate and to be role models. If there is competence and integrity, there is no need to worry about making decisions because the decisions are for the good of the people and the state, not for personal or group interests.
(Presented in the international conference – Prominent Women in the ASEAN Community, 13 July 2018, Le Meridien Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies and Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University)