The Solution of Bank Century?s Scandal and SBY?s Government Stability

Photo 1: (left-right) Prof. Dr. Tjipta Lesmana, MA., MARS, Dr. John Palinggi, MM, MBA., Erwin Pardede, Dr. Effendi Gazali, Bambang Soesatyo.

Photo 2: Effendi Gazali is explaining the theory that grows up in the middle of society about Bank Century case.

The case of Bank Century, which is a hot topic in society nowadays, can be seen not only from political and economical points of view, but also from the political communication one. Based on that understanding, UPH Communication Master Program held a seminar in The Aryaduta Hotel-Jakarta entitled ?The Solution of Bank Century?s Scandal and SBY?s Government Stability?, on Friday (12/2). This seminar only focused on the academic field, especially from political communication point of view. The speakers were experts in their fields, such as a member of Bank Century?s special committee ? Bambang Soesatyo, a communication expert ? Dr. Effendi Gazali, Head of ARDIN ? Dr. John Palinggi, and former member of Parliament ? Erwin Pardede. The moderator was Prof. Dr. Tjipta Lesmana, MA., MARS as the Head of Master Communication Program-UPH.

Effendi Gazali thought that the recent demonstrations about the ongoing case ? done by students and activists ? as the application of Action Theory, which states that we have to combine knowledge and action to make changes for the betterment.

In the seminar, Effendi also emphasized on another interesting theory which is currently growing in the community, that is fantasy as a part of Symbolic Convergence Theory by Ernest Bormann. ?There are small groups of people developing fantasies using their own symbols. These fantasies have grown so much, that they even brought buffaloes in their demonstrations,? explained Effendi.

He also added, those fantasies were growing even bigger when SBY interpreted the buffalo as a big lazy guy. Meanwhile, our government was not trying to reduce the buffalo theme fantasy, but instead using another theme fantasy to be against it. ?Just like when the President said that his 100-day-program went well, but we don?t actually know anything about it. So, it?s like a teacher making exercises as well as finishing them by himself,? said Effendi.

Besides Effendi, Bambang Soesatyo also had his own opinion about that case. Bambang said that political uproars which were happening lately could last for a short or even longer period of time, depending on how the government handling it. ?Actually the case of Bank Century was just a normal political issue which was being handled by the Parliament, but it became a problem when there were some parties and authorities making a big fuss about it,? said Bambang. He also added that if the Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) and Finance Minister are proven guilty, SBY should decide to replace them. Otherwise, it will disturb the country?s economy stability.

John Palinggi argued that the Parliament should also be blamed, because it did not perform its function in overseeing the BI.
At the end of the seminar, all speakers agreed on the fact that it was a legal case and that it should be solved according to the law. All kinds of communication given by elements of society were meant to express aspirations to the government, so that justice will rule. (yun)

UPH Media Relations