Presidential hopeful Joko '"Jokowi" Widodo appointed on Monday former vice president Jusuf Kalla as his running mate while his rival, Prabowo Subianto, chose former coordinating economic minister Hatta Rajasa. There is no doubt that the two vice-presidential candidates already command vast experience in government and economic affairs. However, if experience and performance are to be used as benchmarks, Kalla outclasses Hatta, who owed a political favor to Kalla after the latter agreed to include him in Yudhoyono's first-term Cabinet. The Jakarta Post's Tassia Sipahutar explores the stories of the two candidates.
Jusuf Kalla
After five years of tireless effort keeping himself in the limelight and maintaining leverage in national politics, all the pain seems to have paid off for former vice president Jusuf Kalla, 72, as he makes a comeback to try and clinch the vice president's job.
His bitter parting from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2009 and his defeat in the race for the presidency in the election that same year have only fueled his ambition for a political revival.
After losing the race, Kalla was also forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the Golkar Party to Aburizal Bakrie in 2010.
But none of that has diminished his influence. Since then, Kalla has maintained his profile by taking the role as chief of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in 2009, with his philanthropic work regularly catching the attention of mainstream media outlets.
To garner support from the Muslim community, Kalla headed the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI) in 2012, where he steadily gained influence among mosque organizers.
But none of this could match his greatest achievement: The nurturing of the career of the would-be next national leader, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Kalla spearheaded the rise of Jokowi in 2011 from a humble mayor of the small city of Surakarta in Central Java to become Jakarta governor, and now the strongest contender for the presidency.
Jokowi's ascent has not only raised Kalla's profile, but also that of Jokowi's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which has been in opposition against Yudhoyono's Democratic Party for a decade.
"I helped bring Jokowi to Jakarta," Kalla said in August last year.
"He had been successful in Surakarta, so I figured he deserved a chance on the national stage."
PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri has every reason to bless Kalla's nomination, particularly due to his vast experience in government. She also knows Kalla well, as he served as her coordinating welfare minister.
"Kalla's experience as a minister and vice president will be a great advantage. He will not need any time to learn the ropes," said Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) economist Juniman.
Juniman cited an example of Kalla's success during his term as Yudhoyono's first vice president, in initiating the conversion of kerosene to liquefied petroleum gas for household use. The policy helped to substantially lower energy subsidies and eased the deficit in the state's coffers.
While the vice-presidential office has traditionally been more ceremonial than functional, Kalla took an active role during his term in office, especially with regard to economic policies due to his experience in building one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia.
"Should he win, Kalla may well reprise the same role and help to complement Jokowi, who remains a relative political novice with a lack of policy-making experience at the national level," said economist Wellian Wiranto of the OCBC Bank.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post in February, Kalla said that if he was given an opportunity to lead the country, he would prioritize accelerating infrastructure development and cutting the burdensome fuel subsidies.
"Our country is facing widespread poverty, accompanied by high unemployment. All of this is triggered by the fact that we have been unable to develop sufficient infrastructure that will create jobs. However, we are facing problems in financing infrastructure development — we have been allocating too much of our budget for fuel subsidies. Therefore, the subsidies must be reduced," he said.
"I realize that raising the subsidized-fuel price is a sensitive move and not a popular one. But, I also believe that the public will soon understand the importance of reducing the subsidies. They will learn that the subsidies have been unfairly distributed as they are mostly enjoyed by the middle-income and top-income segments, while the spirit of providing subsidies is actually to help the poor."
Hatta Rajasa
It was not until Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second term as president that Hatta Rajasa played a major role. It was his appointment as coordinating economic minister that earned him a higher profile.
Hatta has often attributed the country's economic growth to his economic policies, which he has dubbed "Hattanomics".
His paramount legacy as minister was the introduction of the Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).
The program is a set of plans designed to create economic clusters and business centers on all of Indonesia's major islands to support their unique local economies.
The centers are defined as six economic development highways, mostly located along coastlines, which will connect economic-growth centers on five islands: Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.
However, according to Latif Adam, an economist with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the MP3EI lacks "real implementation" and that may become a disadvantage for the vice president-to-be.
"It looks good on paper, but we have not seen any tangible results so far. The [MP3EI's] idea is to boost economic potential in other regions, but as we can see, Java and Sumatra remain as dominant as before in our national economy," Latif said.
"The private sector's involvement in the project has not been as expected either because it's very minimal, but as vice president, Hatta would have more clout to speed up the projects," he added.
Despite the lack of real results, Latif still applauded Hatta, saying that the MP3EI was something of a breakthrough.
BII economist Juniman voiced a similar opinion, saying that the MP3EI could not be considered as a Hatta success just yet.
"The projects are often hampered by land-acquisition issues," Juniman said.
Economist Ahmad Erani Yustika of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) said that should Prabowo win the presidency, Hatta's function would not be much different from what he was doing as a minister.
"He will most likely be responsible for managing the economy and that is something that he has been doing for the past five years. The only difference is that he will have to adjust his policies to those of [the] Gerindra [Party]," he said.
In its economic platform, titled "The Manifesto of the Gerindra Party", the party has stated that it will reject the policy of privatization of state-owned enterprises and the liberalization of trade in
any form.
The party has said it will strongly support protectionism for local commodities.
Erani said that Hatta's experience in dealing with the bureaucracy would complement Prabowo as the latter had always fulfilled military roles.
Hatta became a minister for the first time in August 2001 under the administration of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Other aspects of Hatta's legacy include the need for Indonesia to renegotiate contract extensions with several global mining companies as well as maintaining the ore-export ban policy.
Hatta previously led the government's team to negotiate mining contracts and to set export duties for mineral products.
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