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SBY, Kalla reinstate old unity
In a rare show of unity, the President and Vice President attended Thursday the inauguration of military monuments
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In a rare show of unity, the President and Vice President attended Thursday the inauguration of military monuments.
It was their first appearance in public together since political tensions began boiling over following Kalla's stated readiness last week to challenge Yudhoyono in the presidential election.
Ties between the two soured earlier after Ahmad Mubarok, deputy chairman of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, remarked that the Golkar Party, which Kalla heads, would win a mere 2.5 percent of votes in the upcoming legislative elections.
Yudhoyono later held a special media conference to contain the damage, calling Golkar a "brother of the Democratic Party".
Golkar deputy chairman Theo L. Sambuaga, who also attended Thursday's ceremony at the Indonesian Military Headquarters, said the appearance of the country's top two together in public could mean more.
"They are here to show their closeness... They will continue their job together as President and Vice President until the end of their term.
"And after that it is not unlikely they will run together again," Theo said.
"I think this is a signal that they are committed to continuing their leadership. SBY-JK is currently still the strongest pair [in the presidential race]."
He added Kalla's statement that he was ready for a presidential bid was made to appease Golkar's regional branches.
The party, however, has yet to decide whether Kalla will vie for the presidency.
"We are open to possibilities. A presidential candidate, a vice presidential candidate, or both; it will depend on the results of the legislative elections," Theo said.
In the mean time, he added, Golkar would "guard the SBY-JK administration as best as [it] can" until the end of their term.
Theo denied Kalla's meeting with Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) chairman Tifatul Sembiring late Thursday evening was intended to court PKS founder Hidayat Nur Wahid as Kalla's running mate.
"It's just routine communication that we hold with the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle] and others," he said.
Democratic Party secretary-general Marzuki Alie said Kalla's statement of readiness was "normative" because of his position as Golkar chairman.
"JK has never said he is willing to be a presidential candidate. He has only said that he is ready. There's a difference," he said.
"[The statement] might be just an effort to boost the moral of Golkar members across the country ahead of the elections."
He added parties could not possibly talk about coalitions and presidential candidates yet before the legislative elections were decided.
"All these discourses are meaningless until after the legislative elections," Marzuki said.
