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Jusuf Kalla has the common touch

By Duncan Graham - posted Friday, 14 July 2006


Kalla was sweet-talked back into Golkar and in December 2004 elected party chairman in a landslide.

Suddenly Yudhoyono had real muscle in the parliament - and a debt to his politically nimble offsider. As Yudhoyono wandered the world glad-handing leaders, the older Kalla zipped around the archipelago tackling the really messy problems. His major triumph was getting peace in the north Sumatra province of Aceh, a goal that had eluded all previous administrations and the Dutch colonialists.

The December 2004 tsunami that did most damage in Aceh certainly helped the long-time warring separatists and military rethink their priorities and tactics in the province. But it was Kalla’s persistent energy and political skills in pushing for reconciliation that kept the peace initiatives alive and ultimately successful.

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Then Kalla started making decrees, which is the president’s prerogative, and blandly offering views that contradicted his colleagues.

The scuttlebutt flared: will the real president please rise?

Physically they’re like an old-time stand-up comedy duo - the plumping and ponderous president looking older than his 57 years, and his bouncy little sidekick seemingly younger than 64. Both deny any rift and claim they work as a team.

Which is what you’d expect them to say - but in this case it could be true. Part of the problem is the public’s expectations. In the past VPs were of no consequence - just fete-openers when the big man was overseas. Kalla is reinventing the job and having fun.

When Yudhoyono speaks off the cuff it’s usually to make some worthy but boring observation. Kalla’s cracks are newsworthy. When told that a local version of Playboy would be nude-free he quipped this meant Indonesian men were being duped into buying a misrepresented product.

Then he unveiled plans to lure wealthy Arabs to Indonesia. It seems the VP doesn’t want the usual idyllic isle and shopping spree promotion. He knows what Middle East males really want. Advertising the availability of widows and divorcees seeking men with Mastercards would be a big come-on.

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In the West such an idea would be clawed to shreds, but in Indonesia where men are number one citizens, not all saw this as insulting and degrading to women.

The feminists said the predictable things and the remark was later reinterpreted by Kalla’s spinmasters - but it was the guffaws from the blokes around the VP that indicated Kalla has got the common touch.

More important was Kalla’s performance at an open public meeting held in East Java last month (June). This was to discuss a huge mud eruption from a ruptured gas well - and showed the man at his best.

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About the Author

Duncan Graham is a Perth journalist who now lives in Indonesia in winter and New Zealand in summer. He is the author of The People Next Door (University of Western Australia Press) and Doing Business Next Door (Wordstars). He blogs atIndonesia Now.

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All articles by Duncan Graham

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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