Referring to the old adage si vis pacem para bellum, presidential hopeful Jusuf Kalla called on the nation to be prepared for war to maintain the country’s sovereignty over the Ambalat waters while pursuing the constitutional imperative of creating world peace.

Somewhat similar to Kalla’s statement, incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stressed upon the conclusion of his foreign visit to South Korea on Tuesday that he would not negotiate on the country’s ownership of the water territory.

Kalla, who is paired with Wiranto with the campaign slogan "the faster the better," said that, if elected, they would consistently deploy a free, active foreign policy.

Spokesman for the JK-Win campaign team Yuddy Chrisnandy said Kalla’s platform on foreign policy would be implemented with strong national leadership. “We must take a proactive role in creating peace on the planet. It is not just to give support to or raise the hand when there is a resolution on peace talks. But we will be proactive to propose initiatives to create peace,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

With initiatives, other countries will accept the existence of Indonesia as the foremost nation in Southeast Asia, he said.

Yuddy said that Kalla would also focus on rebuilding Indonesia’s leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as it was during the Soeharto era.

“We hope Indonesia will be an anchor of stability in the region.

“Pak Kalla wants Indonesia to reclaim its role as leader of the ASEAN region and as a strong country both politically and economically,” he said.

Yuddy said Kalla and Wiranto would also increase protection of Indonesian people living overseas to prevent any ill-treatment.

“We will use embassy offices as a second home for Indonesian people so all their problems can be handled quickly,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party Deputy Chairman Anas Urbaningrum said incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would “continue” the measures he had taken to cement Indonesia's emerging international role.

Anas said Indonesia’s international roles in a number of fields, including world peace, human rights and conflict resolution, had “drastically improved” over the past four and half years and that the country was becoming able to implement its “free and active” foreign policy.

“Indonesia has become a member of nine international organizations under the United Nations, and it has  established communications with a number of key countries including the US, Russia, China, European Union, the Middle East and Latin America.

“SBY is obviously more established and fluent in international diplomacy,” Anas said.

Meanwhile, Hasto Kristianto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle acknowledged that foreign policy under Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto would emphasize the need to uphold a free and active foreign policy.

“'Free', meaning that we are against all neocolonial attempts throughout the world and 'active', meaning that we will proactively safeguard our country’s sovereignty,” Hasto told The Post.

He said the future struggle to uphold that nation's sovereignty would be tougher as the upcoming administration would be tasked with safeguarding the country from both conventional and unconventional threats.

He said among conventional threats were provocative actions against the country’s territory, while unconventional threats included safeguarding the country’s economic interests, especially in strategic fields such as energy, fuel, food and electricity.

Dicky Christianto contributed to this story from Jakarta

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