Farewell to Kalla

The Jakarta Post   |  Mon, 10/26/2009 9:49 AM  |  Opinion

By the time former vice president Jusuf Kalla stepped out of his car at the People’s Consultative Assembly building on Tuesday, he knew it was the last time he would ride in the vice presidential entourage.

On his way back home he was a common citizen. Kalla rode in his private car to his residence on Jl. Dharmawangsa in South Jakarta. His official residence on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta is now occupied by Boediono, his successor.  

Since then Kalla has been back to his world of business and described his new status as “a citizen like any other”. We wish him farewell for the outstanding services he has given the country over the last five years.

It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the most illustrious vice president this country ever had. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who won his second presidential term, was right when he said in his inauguration speech on Tuesday that Kalla had his name carved in the nation’s history.

Unlike the previous eight vice presidents, Kalla often appeared more “visible” than the President himself as he was always ready to comment on issues.

Why was this so? His parting words to Boediono shortly before he ended his term on Oct. 20 were a revelation. A vice president, he said, was not an accessory to the President. He is known to have gone and tackled pressing problems head on, perhaps at the expense of Yudhoyono’s sullenness. Some people must have found this hard to chew, as in Indonesian culture, rarely does a subordinate take a leading role.   

His Bugis ethnic background partly explains his bluntness in comparison to Yudhoyono. The later is a Javanese, an ethnic group that is usually seen as more muted or circular in responding to an issue. Soeharto’s style of government was a good example.

Another explanation is his statesmanship. The most obvious one was when he accepted defeat in the August presidential election. He readily congratulated Yudhoyono as soon as it was clear that the latter was the winner. Afterward, he was back to his post to work together with the President as if the election had never happened. It is a trait, which unfortunately, has rarely been seen among our top politicians.

People still remember how reluctant Megawati Soekarnoputri was to shake Yudhoyono’s hand when the latter beat her in the presidential election. Her grudge dates from the time when Yudhoyono as a senior minister challenged Megawati in the 2004 presidential election.    

Kalla will probably be most remembered for his role in resolving conflicts. At the height of religious conflicts in Ambon and Poso, few people believed they could be resolved in a short time. Kalla succeeded against all odds.

Kalla may have been more successful had he not been a victim of a conflict of interest. The public was aware that Kalla’s only drawback was that he was a businessman and that he often appeared to fail to separate his private and public life.  

Rumors about night sessions of Bugis businessmen in his vice presidential office were harder to contain, although he cannot be held accountable from a legal point of view.   

Sadly, he was not the only one among the top leaders who had similar problems. The others have just been more elusive for the time being.  

By way of parting we bid Kalla farewell, a long farewell to all his greatness! You have proven that you are one of the nation’s best sons. We will always remember what good deeds you have done to this nation.

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