PEOPLE BEGIN DISCOURSE ON KALLA FOR PRESIDENT

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 29 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian public has begun to engage in a discourse on the possibility of former vice president Jusuf Kalla (JK) to be named a presidential candidate although the 2014 presidential race is still  more than two-and-a-half years away.         Jusuf Kalla, who is also a former Golkar Party chairman said early this month in Pekanbaru, Riau Province,  that he was ready to run for president in 2014 if he received support from the public. "If there is full support from the people, then I am ready. But for the time being, I will  not comment much about it yet. The time has not yet come," he said after inaugurating  an Indonesian Red Cross (PMI)office for Riau province.          Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Golkar Party Akbar Tandjung said  the party had not ruled out the possibility of nominating a figure other than  current Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie for the presidency in 2014.          "Nominating JK is a possibility , particularly if survey results show that there are other Golkar figures who have higher electability than Aburizal Bakrie,"  Akbar said here on Tuesday night.           However, Akbar said, Golkar had not yet  decided to look for an alternative figure to be named a presidential hopeful other than its present general chairman. The  mechanism to nominate someone for the presidency  had already been adopted at Golkar's National Leadership Meeting some time ago.          "Golkar's Research and Development Center has conducted a research (on alternative names to be nominated) but we will make public the names only if Golkar has decided to seek an alternative candidate," said Akbar.          He said that people can just mention several names of Golkar figures, yet Golkar would mention an alternative name only if it was  officially decided to name an alternative one.          Akbar said alternative names would likely be sought if the electability of Aburizal Bakkri was low as  a presidential candidate.          "The momentum  will be when the Golkar party  announces its presidential candidate at its National Leadership meeting in October 2012. But before it makes the announcement, Golkar should first be convinced that the name it would announce has high electability,"  Akbar said.          In the meantime, Golkar Deputy Chairman Fadel Muhammad said his side had not yet thought of naming Kalla as Golkar's presidential hopeful in the next presidential election.          "The electability of Aburizal is still high. The electability of Ical (Aburizal) and Kalla differs only slightly. We can improve and raise Ical's electability," Fadel said.          After all, Ical's electability has continued to increase of late, he said referring to the results of a survey  recently.          Based on the results of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) last week,  the electability of Jusuf Kalla was recorded at 7.0 percent, below that of Megawati Soekarnoputri which was recorded at 15.2 percent and Prabowo Subianto (10.6 percent).          Aburizal Bakrie's electability was 5.6 percent or in  fourth place, followed by Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono (4.9 percent) and Wiranto (3.9 percent).          A survey conducted  by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) indicated that Ical was in  fourth position after Megawati, Prabowo and Jusuf Kalla with an electability of 5.2 percent.          According to Akbar Tanjung, the  electability factor would be taken into account in naming a presidential candidate. Golkar would  pay attention to the electability development in the coming few months.          In the meantime, support from other parties, namely from the Regional Executive Branches (DPW) of the United Development Party (PPP) began to increase.          "Our support for Jusuf Kalla from DPWs has begun to crystallize," Rachmat Yasin, chairman of PPP's DPW for West Java, said. He said that the 30 DPWs included West Java, West Nusa Tenggara, West Sumatra, Riau Islands, Banten, North Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, Riau, Maluku, Bengkulu, Central Kalimantan, Jayapura, West Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Aceh, North Sumatra and South Sulawesi.           Yet, according to Rachmat, the support is still in the form of aspirations because any decision on the presidential candidate was in the hand of the Central Executive Board (DPP) of PPP. "It will depend on the DPP which will decide it," he said.          PPP General Chairman Suryadharma Ali said his party had not yet decided as to who it would name a candidate in the coming presidential race. The strong support for JK during the PPP National Working Meeting in Kediri still constituted an aspiration, he added.          "The aspirations raised by the DPWs are an input for the central executive board but the map for the presidential candidate is not yet seen now," Suryadharma Ali said.            He said that the next presidential candidate should be able to increase the number of PPP's cadres and its seats in the House.          According to Rachmat, the DPWs of PPP supported Kalla because he was a great,  strong and clean figure, and was expected to increase the number of  PPP's vote turnouts in the 2014 elections.         Kalla himself is still reluctant to comment about the support given to him by the PPP's regional executive branches. When asked about the political party he would join if he receives full support from the public, Kalla declined to comment.          "Again, I would not comment much about it. It is not yet time for it," he said.           Jusuf Kalla, born in Bone, South Sulawesi on May 15, 1942, was the running mate of current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the presidential election in 2004, which they won.***1*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/22:30/H-YH) 29-02-2012 22:52:2