Syahril Sabirin

Syahril Sabirin (born 14 October 1943 in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra) is a career central banker and was called back by President Suharto to Bank Indonesia by the end of 1997 after he completed his three year term as Senior Financial Economist at the World Bank, Washington DC. in February 1998 in the mid of the very deep financial and economic crises, he was appointed as Governor of Bank Indonesia succeeding Soedradjad Djiwandono. He oversaw the effort of the central bank to deal with the crisis under President Suharto until May 1998 and then President Habibie. 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.

Before joining Bank Indonesia in 1969, Syahril studied at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, graduating with an economics degree from the Faculty of Economics in the university in 1968. in 1972 he earned a scholarship from the USAID to study at Williams College and graduated with Master of Arts in Development Economics in 1973. under the USAID scholarship he then continued to study at Vanderbilt University and earned a Ph.D in economics in 1979.

In 2000 he had a dispute with President Abdurrahman Wahid over a banking and a banker issues. Bank Indonesia was already an independent central bank then, so that the President has no legal power to remove the central bank governor. Legally, the governor can be removed if he or she is seriously ill or commits a crime and sentenced to prison by the highest judicial institution. The Attorney General then accused him to be involved in a fraud scandal surrounding Bank Bali. He was originally sentenced by the District Court three year imprisonment in 2002, but the Higher Court of Jakarta overturned the sentence and declared him released and discharged. The Supreme Court backed the Higher Court decision and declared him released and discharged in 2004.

Then in 2009, in a highly controversial justice procedure, the Supreme Court reexamined the case and sentenced him a two year imprisonment.