[Important News! Jakarta Post — Bank Summa management announces a strategic restructuring by forming two entities to strengthen customer service and maintain national banking stability. Customer deposits remain guaranteed, while the management of non-performing loans will be handled through a special institution in stages.]
The news of Bank Summa's total restructuring was announced following the meeting a week ago, responding to the Bank Rush that had shattered public trust in the institution.
In addition to restructuring by splitting Bank Summa into a "Good Bank" and a "Bad Bank," Bank Summa also conducted a massive internal audit to uncover every existing problem.
This opened the floodgates to massive corruption and bribery within the bureaucracy, as well as the discovery of traitors who had leaked confidential company information, alongside many other rot-infested scandals unearthed by the Suryajaya Family.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I didn't think they were this bad…. And yet their salaries were several times larger than mine…."
"So those bastards were the ones who kept me from withdrawing money from my own account…!!"
Following an internal audit that was lightning-fast yet lethal, the Suryajaya Family immediately launched a counter-offensive through a press conference led by Edward.
They did not just announce losses; they presented a meticulously crafted narrative that the Suryajaya Family was the victim of internal betrayal.
They shifted the entire burden of Bank Summa's failure onto the shoulders of a handful of directors whom Sherly had already marked.
Technically, the directors' mistakes were indeed massive.
However, Edward multiplied the weight of their "sins" in front of the media.
Audit documents were sorted in such a way as to show that every fatal decision was the result of individual sabotage, not a systemic failure of the family.
In the world of corporate politics, they didn't need absolute truth.
They only needed a credible enough scapegoat to be burned in front of the public.
By sacrificing these traitors, Edward successfully washed the Suryajaya Family's hands of any accusations of managerial incompetence.
Furthermore, the Suryajaya Family stated they would take full responsibility regarding the issue.
They declared they were willing to sell Bank Summa to other companies or even the government if necessary.
The Suryajaya Family's "knightly" stance, declaring their readiness to sell the bank for the sake of the customers, was merely a checkmate move to force the government to intervene.
They knew perfectly well that if Bank Summa collapsed, the domino effect would destroy the national economy.
The result?
Public opinion flipped.
With all those statements, public perception of the Suryajaya family and Bank Summa gradually improved, and the intensity of the Bank Rush finally decreased significantly.
The public, who had previously reviled William Suryajaya, now began to sympathize and redirected their anger toward the "corrupt directors" who were already scheduled for prison.
A month later, after long negotiations, the government purchased Bank Summa for 3 Trillion Rupiah to maintain national economic stability.
As for the Bad Bank, which contained all the bad records of customer loans and Astra's debts to Bank Summa, everything was handed over to a few directors serving as scapegoats. These men were willing to pay for all their debts and mistakes by becoming the owners of that company—and sinking right along with it.
Even though Bank Indonesia (BI) was suspicious of this, the Suryajaya Family managed to handle it by lobbying several bureaucrats and BI officials for the time being.
Consequently, further investigation was deemed unnecessary by BI when the records of Bank Summa and the Suryajaya Family showed a positive trend.
Looking at all the reports provided by her father, Sherly only offered a thin smile while staring at the clear late afternoon sky at her school.
In the end, she was able to pull the Suryajaya Family out of the debt trap that had once drowned them in total destruction.
"From the start, Grandpa should have let go of Bank Summa if he wanted his family to survive…."
It was a decision that had to be made, considering how destructive that bank was within her grandfather's business empire.
To convince her grandfather, Sherly even had to speak at great length and force him to let go of Bank Summa.
To be honest, that alone wasn't enough to change her grandfather's stubborn mind. Therefore, she also explained the most feasible steps to reduce the losses they bore and gain the maximum possible profit from it.
Well, I understand why Grandpa was so stubborn. After all, Bank Summa was a family business startup built by Father, not a business empire that had already gone public like Astra.
But the problem was, even though it was a responsible decision, it was the worst path for our family, which subsequently faced ruin only because of Grandpa's stubbornness….
"Ermmhh…. My head hurts…. Grandpa loved Bank Summa too much…. Fortunately, Father was helpful enough in convincing Grandpa…."
Her father, at least, possessed a very rational mindset when considering the company's profit and loss.
If they hadn't cut off Bank Summa immediately, the company would have sucked the Suryajaya Family's money even further.
Even with Astra's debt there, they would have been completely destroyed because of it.
After all, Astra was one of the largest conglomerate groups in Indonesia with a dozen subsidiaries under it, possessing limitless assets and reputation.
Therefore, it would be a shame if a parent company of this scale fell into the hands of another family.
Walking in the middle of the quiet school garden, Sherly was still thinking deeply about her family.
"If I think about it again… Even though I succeeded in cutting off Bank Summa, this is still far from enough."
If this were the only thing that caused her family's downfall, they wouldn't deserve to be considered one of the wealthiest conglomerates in Indonesia.
In truth, it was a complex problem, like a tangled thread too complicated to unravel.
It could be said that government intervention, the policies made, and attacks from other families truly became the issues that made it very difficult for our family.
It was like someone holding a knife to our throats, threatening to kill us if we let our guard down and made even the slightest mistake.
"The government, huh…." she muttered while staring at the twinkling lights of the capital city, Jakarta, at night.
Whoshhh….
Sherly closed her eyes, letting the breeze brush against her face.
Behind her eyelids, she saw the shadow of 1990s Jakarta that should have been the start of something great.
'These years... were actually the golden era,' she thought bitterly.
She remembered the murmurs of the old man under the bridge long ago.
Indonesia at this time was not a weak country.
Its economic growth was skyrocketing, on par with a Seoul that was starting to go global or a Beijing that had just awakened.
Infrastructure was being built, and the foundations of industry were being laid.
At this point in history, Indonesia actually held a golden ticket to becoming a developed country before the 21st century began.
However, Sherly knew what would happen. She had seen the future.
A corrupt government.
Nepotism rooted to the very bone marrow.
And policies made only to enrich a handful of oligarchs would throw this golden opportunity into the gutter just like that.
The 1998 crisis was not just bad luck; it was the bill for a decade of uncontrolled greed.
This country would collapse just when it was supposed to start running.
'My family is just one of many pawns that will be crushed by the rot of this system,' Sherly clenched her fist.
She realized that Astra, no matter how big it was now, remained a sandcastle if the nation's foundation was being eaten away by termites.
If she just sat back and enjoyed her family's wealth, she would be destroyed again when the storm of that crisis came for the second time.
Oh, right…..
And if thought about briefly, wouldn't it be a waste if she only relied on her family to live comfortably….
….without worry of the Suryajaya Family's destruction when these complex strands are so hard to untangle.
Now that she has returned to the past….?
Come on, even though she became a vagrant in the future, it didn't mean she was a foolish old woman.
Hmm….
"Maybe, yeah… I shouldn't rely too much on my family's wealth to survive…?"