He was successful because he had the legitimacy of being an East Indonesian leader. That dispelled my basic distrust of him as being anti-Christian.
As Vice President, Kalla showed much-needed leadership and resoluteness in facing Islamic extremism in Indonesia. A case in point was his quick action following the death of key Jamaah Islamiyah activist Dr. Azhari, in Batu, East Java, in November 2005, when he ordered the seizure of propaganda materials and CDs containing JI’s extremist ideology.
Kalla was taken aback by those materials, and took the initiative of calling the leaders of Muslim organizations (including very conservative ones) to a meeting at his residence to show them the materials. He demanded of them whether that was the kind of ideology they wanted to adopt in Indonesia. If it wasn’t, he challenged them to find ways of confronting it and winning over its adherents.
The leaders present made a pledge to counter extremism in their own ways and to cooperate to prevent the subversion of Islam in Indonesia. As a leader, Kalla has the commitment and authority to exert his influence over Muslim leaders to fight extremist activities.
His main achievement was undoubtedly the Aceh Peace Agreement, which put to an end 23 years of civil war and insurgency. On his own initiative, he began approaching the leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in October 2004, before his move to the vice president’s office. The suffering and destruction wreaked by the tsunami in 2006 led Kalla to use it as an impetus to strengthen his efforts to seek the final resolution of the Aceh conflict.
In addition, he made great efforts to help and support the Papuan quest for special autonomy, although the situation in that province was more complicated, due partly to the tribalism that prevails there.
Overall, Kalla has done a lot to support the SBY government, especially in economics. He is pragmatic in his economic outlook, and has been open enough in his view on globalization, despite retaining some previous biases from his business days about how Indonesia has to build its national economy.
The current economic crisis calls for a strong role of government, but examples of the failures of socialism are still fresh, and globalization remains the main trend in the international economy. Kalla should be able to balance these two aspects of the economy.
Another asset is his quick mind and willingness to answer questions. However this openness and egalitarian approach sometimes translates into shallow thinking – some of his answers are gut reactions, especially on issues he does not know very well.
More troubling for Indonesia is the criticism concerning the businesses he and his family operate. While everybody is entitled to do business, holders of elected office must make sure there is no whiff or smell of conflict of interest between the family and the state.
People’s trust in clean government is absolutely necessary, without it office holders are not able to run the government. It is a sacrifice, but a necessary one for the good of the people and for the practice of good governance. This is especially important in Indonesia’s young democracy.
Jusuf Wanandi is vice chairman for the CSIS Foundation’s board of trustees.
This article is adapated from an earlier version, first published on 23 June in The Jakarta Post