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When Indonesia unveiled the measures to be imposed as part of a $23 billion economic stabilization programme backed by the IMF last month, a key condition was a clean-up in the banking sector. Making a start, finance minister Marie Muhammed and central bank governor Soedradjat Djiwandono announced the closure of 16 small and insolvent banks out of Indonesia's grand total of more than 230.
Out from the woodwork immediately crawled some of the most colourful characters ever to don a pinstriped suit. Shareholders of the liquidated banks included the sultan of Yogjakarta, scion of the former Indonesian royal family, and two children and a half brother of Suharto, the country's long-serving president. Two of the banks to be shut are owned by Hendra Raharjo, brother of the fugitive industrialist Eddy Tansil who escaped from jail after his conviction in 1995 for defrauding a state bank of $430 million.