Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A famous legend that has always existed in every era is the mystery of Soekarno's 57 thousand tons of gold. I don't know who started it, Sukarno is known to have gold savings obtained from kingdoms in the past. It is said that the gold was stored in a bank in Switzerland.
Apart from that, a legend that has a similar story is about the inheritance of money collected by Soekarno. It is said that, through Perpu No. 19 of 1960 concerning State Companies, Soekarno transferred donations from many state companies to Union Bank, Switzerland. The total amount of money known as the 'Revolutionary Fund' reached US$16 billion or IDR 240 trillion.
The existence of this legend ultimately disturbed many parties into hunting for it. One of them is the 2nd President of Indonesia, Suharto. Suharto, through New Order era officials, is known to have started a treasure hunt in early 1987.
The treasure hunt was carried out by the Teladan Operation Team. Firdaus Jaya in Tracking down the “treasures” of Bung Karno and Suharto (1999) mentions the Exemplary Operation Team led by First Marshal Kahardiman.
Kahardiman was assigned to target all Old Order government funds which were suspected of being abroad, including the story of the funds in the Swiss bank. For the New Order, if these funds were disbursed, the APBN would increase. Moreover, during that period the Indonesian economy was not doing well after the drop in world oil prices.
The New Order government believed that the search for treasure would be successful. Because, they believe in two things.
First, the historical fact that these funds were disbursed by the Minister of Industry in 1962-1963. The total disbursement of funds is only IDR 50 million.
Second, there is still a living historical witness, namely Soebandrio.
Soebandrio was Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Soekarno era. He is the person who takes care of storing the assets in the Swiss Bank. Contemporaneous reporting reported Tempo (10 January 1987) explained that he was the only person who knew the savings account number. Besides, only he can dilute it.
However, the transition of power changed Soebandrio's fate. He was detained for life by the New Order. When this treasure hunt intensified, Soebandrio bargained.
“He reportedly offered to take care of the disbursement of the funds. The condition was that he asked for a release from his sentence,” he wrote Tempo.
However, Suharto did not agree with these conditions. Soebandrio remains in custody. Meanwhile, the Teladan Operation Team continued to hunt without Soebandrio's help. However, on the other hand, many people are skeptical about this treasure.
Experts say this treasure does not exist. Not a few high-ranking state officials said the same thing, including Finance Minister Radius Prawiro. He was actually skeptical about the existence of this treasure. He said there was no evidence of the existence of these funds.
In the end, Radius' skepticism was confirmed. After many years, the hunt for treasures relics from the Soekarno era produced no results. However, Suharto did not give up.
Ten years later, through Instruction from the President of the Republic of Indonesia No. 4 of 1997 concerning Research on Wealth that the State Can Use, the Five Star General became serious about looking for Soekarno's legacy.
The search for treasure is understandable. Because at that time Indonesia was in the early stages of an economic crisis. If these treasures are found, Indonesia will experience a 'windfall'.
During the implementation, Suharto asked the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Azwar Anas, to search for assets. In autobiography Azwar Anas: An Example from the Minang Realm (2011: 477), Azwar said that even after the treasure hunt was carried out, the trillions of rupiah in revolutionary funds could not be found.
Azwar gave up. He also came to see Suharto in 1998 to tell him that he had failed to carry out the search. However, Suharto didn't care. He took a pen and wrote a sentence that shocked Azwar Anas. The sentence is:
“Completed to completion!” complete with Soeharto's signature.
Azwar was silent. But, he thought he could no longer complete the task. After all, these assets cannot be traced. In the end, Soeharto's hunt for Soekarno's inheritance ended with the fall of the New Order ruler. After that, the hundreds of trillions of assets from the Soekarno era remained shrouded in a mist of mystery.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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