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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Thursday dismissed speculation that she was in line for a sideways move to head the central bank as part of a political deal to appease the Golkar Party over the PT Bank Century bailout.

“It’s just rumor,” she told reporters, shaking her head. “Please help me, my head goes ‘oplak’ every time I hear the rumor.” Oplak is the Javanese word that describes a blank state of mind.

Talk swirled on Wednesday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Golkar Chairman Aburizal Bakrie had reached a political compromise that would see Sri Mulyani leave the cabinet to be governor of Bank Indonesia. The rumors were fueled by presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha, who said her name would likely be on a list of candidates for the job to be revealed that day.

“Yes, it seems that way,” Julian said when asked if she was on the list of candidates. In the end, there was no announcement.

A government source close to Sri Mulyani and Vice President Boediono called talk of a move to Bank Indonesia nonsense and just part of a political “war” between Aburizal and the president.

For months, Sri Mulyani and Boediono have been under fire over the decision to rescue Bank Century with a Rp 6.7 trillion ($710 million) bailout in November 2008. Both have defended the decision as necessary to save the banking system from collapse.

An inquiry by a special committee of lawmakers has split along party lines, with the president’s Democratic Party calling the bailout legal, while most of his coalition allies have broken ranks, led by Golkar, which has called for Sri Mulyani to be dismissed.

It would be strange indeed if Sri Mulyani were to be moved to Bank Indonesia, where she would be in charge of banking regulation, as a result of a deal with the very critics who accuse her of financial improprieties.