“In God We Trust All Others Pay
Cash” - a sign in one Amsterdam café, summer 2007.
Photograph by: Sigit Mursidi 2007
Beginning the quiet Q1 of the year, I flipped
through my personal pictures, and found this one intriguing. Little
did I know that such a playful sign such as above carries such a deep
meaning these days. The speed by which reality has changed is
dizzying. Even more fundamental question is do we still have anybody
to trust? Forget politicians, I am talking about respectable
auditors’ companies. I accept that the big six lost Andersen in 2003
after Enron; but now, it seemed that
Pricewaterhouse has a lot to
explain in the Satyam case in India, after the Indian
authorities arrested two of its employees who signed Satyam’s audit
report. My question is this: first we do not believe that officials
of public companies will tell the truth, therefore, we establish
public accountants to protect public’s interest, now as the
accountants too are suspect, where else should the public go?
Back to reality in Jakarta, we found the other extreme of the
pendulum. There are still examples of
public institutions barely
accepting the audit of public accountant, or accepting it only after a
long outcry from the public. They are used to reporting to
nobody. It is exactly because of that, only 0.5% Indonesians trade
stock. Which prompted the VP to say that:
“Had the majority of Indonesians
traded BUMI stock, many of us would have drunk pesticide.”
Note: What he meant by “BUMI” is the Bumi Resources; one of
Indonesian public companies worst affected by the recent stock bust.
