Syahril Sabirin (born 14 October 1943) is an Indonesian economist who served as Governor of Bank Indonesia, Indonesia's central bank, from 1998 to 2003. In 2009, he was sentenced to two years in jail for his role in the

Bank Bali scandal The Bank Bali scandal occurred in Indonesia in 1999 when Golkar Party officials colluded with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to coerce Bank Bali chief Rudy Ramli to pay an illegal commission of Rp546 billion (then equivalent t ...

Education

Syahril studied at

Gadjah Mada University Gadjah Mada University ( jv, ꦈꦤꦶꦥ꦳ꦼꦂꦱꦶꦠꦱ꧀ꦓꦗꦃꦩꦢ; id, Universitas Gadjah Mada, abbreviated as UGM) is a public research university located in Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Officially founded on ...

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

, graduating with an economics degree from the Faculty of Economics in 1968. In 1972, he earned a scholarship from

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible f ...

to study at

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

and graduated with Master of Arts in Development Economics in 1973. Under the USAID scholarship, he then continued to study at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, earning a PhD in economics in 1979.

Career

Syahril joined Bank Indonesia in 1969. He later served a three-year term as Senior Financial Economist at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

, Washington DC. In late 1997, Indonesian President

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto le ...

summoned him back to Bank Indonesia, at which time the country was suffering from the

Asian financial crisis The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown due to financial contagion. However, the recovery in 1998– ...

. In February 1998, at the height of the economic and financial crisis, he was appointed Governor of Bank Indonesia, succeeding Soedradjad Djiwandono. Syahril oversaw the central bank's efforts to deal with the crisis under President Suharto until May 1998 and then under presidents BJ Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid. He also oversaw the transformation of Bank Indonesia to an independent central bank in May 1999. He completed his term as Governor in May 2003.

Legal case

In 2000, Syahril had a dispute with President Wahid over banking issues, but as Bank Indonesia had become an independent central bank, the president did not have the legal authority to remove the central bank governor. The Attorney General then accused Syahril of involvement in the Bank Bali fraud scandal. In March 2002, Central Jakarta District Court sentenced him to three years' imprisonment, but he remained free pending an appeal and retained his position as central bank governor. In August 2002, Jakarta High Court overturned the conviction. The Supreme Court in 2004 upheld his acquittal. Then in 2009, in a controversial procedure, the Supreme Court re-examined the case and sentenced Syahril to two years' imprisonment.

References

External links

Profil di TokohIndonesia
1943 births Living people Minangkabau people Indonesian businesspeople Gadjah Mada University alumni Vanderbilt University alumni People from Bukittinggi Indonesian economists Governors of Bank Indonesia {{Indonesia-bio-stub