Vice President Jusuf Kalla sent Friday a clearer signal of his preparedness to contest the presidential election that could put his party on a collision course with his boss Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Jusuf Kalla's statement of readiness to compete with Yudhoyono in the July presidential election was a foregone conclusion as the two have so far gone through a love-hate relationship.

Your comments:

I think this is just politically motivated to raise Kalla's ratings. But I do support Kalla becoming a presidential candidate, so that we have more choices in the upcoming elections.

Andri

Why won't people in the Golkar Party tell Kalla he is beyond his use-by date! People in Indonesia hate Kalla. There is no possibility of Kalla being President.

John Ralph

I have to point out that at the last presidential election Jusuf Kalla was not supported by the Golkar Party. It was the Democratic Party that supported him.

He should reflect on this. Jusuf Kalla and Golkar should thank the Democratic Party for giving him the opportunity to govern this beloved country.

Iwan Priambodo

The driver for closer RI-Aussie ties -- Feb. 21, p. 2

As the Indonesian and Australian governments try to give more substance to their relations, their foreign ministers have agreed that education could be the main driver to building what they termed stronger people-to-people contacts.

Your comments:

Two groups with a lot of issues between them - groping through the darkness to find a new relationship - where to start when Australia has issues that need to be openly discussed and Indonesia is offended by open discussion to the extent that it will withdraw from the debate.

Ken Maynard

Perhaps the most important sentence in this article is the last one. Not only are Indonesian specialists from Australia an endangered species, but if Indonesian courses continue to be closed at universities across the country, as has happened this year at Curtin University in Perth, WA, they will become an extinct one too.

To close Indonesian courses at Australian universities based purely on financial issues is an incredibly shortsighted step to take. Pro-Vice Chancellor David Wood and Vice Chancellor Jeanette Hacket, who are responsible for these closures, have acted in complete contradiction to the stated aims of the Federal and State governments, and of the university itself.

In short, like many others, I am appalled at the treatment of staff and students in the Indonesian department at the hands of the Vice Chancellors of Curtin University.

I am also dismayed and thoroughly embarrassed at the narrow-minded decision to scrap Indonesian language courses and will be relocating to a different university next year.

Space Boy

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