General Election 2009, Yudhoyono-Kalla Still a Duo
Tuesday, 04 April, 2006 | 15:33 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Marzuki Alie said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla will be teamed again in the next President Election 2009. He confirmed this from an informal meeting with Kalla recently.
“Clearly in these five years they are both committed to work well, fulfilling their campaign promises. If the work is good, society will certainly be satisfied and they will be re-elected,” Marzuki told Tempo by phone yesterday (3/4).

However, he repeatedly emphasized that to select the vice presidential candidate, the party must wait for political developments near 2009. “It’s too far away now,” he said.

In another situation, he depicted the statement of the Head of the Democratic Party Election, Major General (retired) Noor Aman that the Democratic Party is going through ten candidates to be the vice presidential candidate to accompany Yudhoyono in the Election 2009, as contained in an English language national newspaper.
Marzuki believes that the rumor started from the recommendation of the Democratic Party Congress, May 2005, in Bali.

It mentioned the party’s plan to nominate Yudhoyono as president for Election 2009 for the second time. “About the vice president, Jusuf Kalla indeed is not mentioned in the congress recommendation, because he belongs to Golkar, not the Democratic Party,” he said.

The Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party faction of the House of Representatives (DPR), Boy M.W. Saul, also admitted not knowing anything about his party’s central executive committee plan to choose the vice presidential candidate for the next election. He also doubted that the decision to look for other vice presidential candidates besides Jusuf Kalla, was an official decision of the party’s central executive committee. Noor Aman could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the Golkar Party Deputy General Chairman, Agung Laksono presumed that Noor Aman’s statement came too early. “It’s not the time to talk about this yet,’ he said. According to Agung, now the priority must be on the government, political party, and the other national components such as economic recovery and infrastructure improvement.

Agung again refused to comment on whether this issue was a sign of a seed of conflict between President SBY and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

WAHYU DHYATMIKA