[Kabar-indonesia] Analysis: Spats over new Indonesia body show president, VP rift

[Joyo at aol.com]

Analysis: Spats over new Indonesia body show president, VP
rift

By Ahmad Pathoni

JAKARTA, November 12 (Reuters) - Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and his vice president are from different
political parties but their rivalry has remained relatively
dormant -- at least until now.

In recent weeks, Yudhoyono has set up a reform body called
the Working Unit for Managing Reform Programmes, which he
has said is aimed at helping push through changes needed to
attract investment, reforming the bureaucracy and fighting
corruption.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who many believe has
presidential ambitions of his own, has reportedly said such
a body is unnecessary, arguing the cabinet has done its job
very well. The president has said he is acting well within
his authority to set up the body.

Local media interpreted the two men's remarks as a sign of a
widening gulf at a time when Indonesia is still struggling
to get its economy moving fast enough to reduce massive
unemployment.

"The relationship is not smooth any more," Arbi Sanit, a
political analyst at the University of Indonesia, told
Reuters.

"There's hidden rivalry because they come from two different
political parties, and the vice president's party is much
bigger than the president's," he said.

Kalla is chairman of Golkar, the largest party in parliament
but somewhat tainted because it was the political vehicle of
ousted president Suharto. Yudhoyono heads the much smaller
Democrat Party.

There has been speculation in local media that Kalla feared
Golkar would be the target in any reform drive spearheaded
by the body and its head, former attorney general Marsillam
Simanjuntak.

Simanjuntak is said to have been a proponent of Golkar's
disbandment when he was in the cabinet of then-president
Abdurrahman Wahid.

GOOD MATCH

When Yudhoyono and Kalla won the country's first direct
presidential election on reform pledges in 2004, some
political analysts regarded them as a perfect match for a
country adjusting to democracy after decades of iron-fisted
rule by Suharto, pressured out of the presidency in 1998.

Yudhoyono was a retired general with a doctorate in
agricultural economics. Kalla was a successful businessman-
cum-politician seen as capable of kickstarting the sluggish
economy.
They won power on pledges to reduce poverty and weed out
corruption. The latter is endemic in the country and a major
barrier to investment in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

After he became vice president, Kalla was elected chairman
of Golkar, a plus for the administration in getting
legislation accepted.

However, rumours of differences between Kalla and Yudhoyono
have sporadically surfaced, and the dispute over the reform
body has lent them considerable credence.

Kalla appeared to backtrack from his reported opposition to
the body on Friday, saying he was not in a position to
reject it.

"I think it's all over. The president has explained ... it
is a technical unit of the president," he told reporters. "I
have no right to say yes or no."

But he refrained from saying he thought the body was a good
idea.

Yudhoyono has said the body would not interfere with the
work of cabinet ministers or other institutions, one of the
concerns raised by critics and Golkar politicians, and
denied the vice president had been excluded in discussions
of its formation.

Analysts however say the controversy could have a lasting
effect on the Yudhoyono-Kalla administration.

"This unit will be a thorn in their relationship. Before the
rivalry was not so open," said Ichlasul Amal, a political
analyst and former rector of Gadjah Mada University.

Sanit said the division could make it more difficult for the
government to achieve reform goals.

"Because they have different interests, they have different
approaches to many things," he said.

The analysts also agreed that Kalla, running on a Golkar
ticket, was likely to challenge Yudhoyono in the 2009
presidential election.

"He will go a separate way because Golkar believes as the
biggest political party it should get the number one post,"
Amal said. (Additional reporting by Muhamad Ari)

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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