Indonesian presidential favorite Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has picked a respected Cabinet member as his running mate for the July 5 election, officials said yesterday, dealing a blow to President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Social welfare minister Jusuf Kalla would partner Yudhoyono in the country's presidential election, said Akbar Tandjung, chairman of Golkar, the party of ousted autocrat Suharto.
PHOTO: EPA
"This morning, he said he will team up with Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the presidential poll," Tandjung said, but brushed off suggestions the move would hurt Golkar.
Kalla was one of several candidates for the Golkar ticket and Megawati had also been courting him as a running mate.
Megawati's Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) is running second to Golkar with about two-thirds of the ballots counted from the April 5 parliamentary election.
Kalla is expected to follow Yudhoyono's example and quit her Cabinet in the next few days.
Yudhoyono was Megawati's chief security minister until he resigned last month. He has since surged to become presidential favorite.
The new president and vice president will not be sworn in until Oct. 20, raising questions over the cohesion of Indonesia's government in the coming months, especially if more key ministers quit to pursue their political ambitions.
Kalla met Tandjung yesterday and announced his withdrawal from Golkar's contest to choose a presidential candidate. Kalla declined to answer questions about Yudhoyono and said he would hold a news conference later on the matter.
Yudhoyono has not commented either, although the official Antara news agency quoted him as saying Kalla would join his ticket.
Golkar is leading in the parliamentary election with 21 percent of the vote, followed by Megawati's PDI-P with 19.5 percent. Golkar is expected to widen its lead as more votes are counted from outlying areas, where it has a traditional base in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
But the big established parties are discovering that a well-oiled party machine, a key factor in the parliamentary poll, might not be a match for personal popularity when the country conducts its first, direct presidential election.
While Kalla is not expected to win nomination at Golkar's convention to be held today and tomorrow over several other stronger party cadres, including Tandjung, he has been one of the best performers in Megawati's cabinet.
Kalla has solid Muslim credentials and played a key role halting religious violence in Indonesia's east in recent years.
He is also a leading businessman from his home base in eastern Sulawesi island, complementing Yudhoyono, who comes from the main island of Java and who has strength on security issues.
Political analysts expect Megawati will be left trying to strike a deal with Vice President Hamzah Haz, or Hasyim Muzadi, head of the country's biggest moderate Muslim group in her search for a running mate.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS