Jusuf Kalla

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Political career

Kalla returned to active politics in 1987 after being appointed as a regional representative for South Sulawesi by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). In 1992, 1997, and 1999, he was recalled to the MPR.

When Kyai Haji Wahid (often known as Gus Dur) was elected president by the MPR in 1999, she was included in the cabinet and became Minister of Industry and Trade. He had only been a minister for six months when Wahid sacked him in April 2000, along with the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises. Wahid accused both Kalla and minister Laksamana of misconduct, although he never provided evidence to back up the accusation, and Kalla denied the charges.

President Gus Dur was voted out of office in July 2001 at a special session of the MPR. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri took over the presidency and included Kalla in her cabinet, naming him to the top post of Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare. Although it was not part of his ministerial briefing, Kalla helped resolve the inter-religious conflict in Poso, which was based on his native island of Sulawesi. Kalla facilitated the talks that culminated in the signing of the Malino II Accord on December 20th, 2001, bringing an end to the war that had been raging for three years. Kalla helped with another Sulawesi confrontation two months later. Kalla managed to resolve a similar conflict involving Ambon and Molucca on February 12, 2002, together with Coordinating Minister of Politics and Society Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Kalla, who is best known for assisting with the Sulawesi peace process, considered running as a candidate in the 2004 presidential race. He declared his candidacy in August 2003 and was enlisted as a participant in Golkar's 2004 convention, which will select the Golkar candidate for president. Kalla began to be seen more as a vice presidential candidate in the months to come. He was supposed to work with a Javanese presidential candidate, and his non-Javanese experience was seen as a way to gain non-Javanese votes, which a Javanese candidate might have trouble getting.

Kalla decided not to run under the Golkar banner just days before the national convention. Rather, he accepted the challenge from the Democratic Party's (PD) Yudhoyono to be his running mate. The pair also received the support of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), and the Reform Star Party (PBR).

The presidential election was held on July 5, 2004, which was on July 5th. Yudhoyono and Kalla received 33% of the popular vote, but 50 percent of the votes were required for the presidency and vice president, so a run-off was required. Yudhoyono and Megawati qualified for the second election round, which took place later this year.

Yudhoyono faced a formidable challenge from Megawati, who formed a national alliance made up of her own Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), Golkar, the United Development Party, the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS), and the Indonesian National Party (PNI). Although Yudhoyono gained political aplomb from other factions, Kalla went to Golkar for assistance. Pro-Kalla forces in Golkar have announced their love for Kalla and Yudhoyono, Led by Fahmi Idris and ignoring the party line. Yudhoyono and Kalla won the run-off with 51% of the vote on September 20th.

Although he had largely won the presidency, Yudhoyono was still poor in the People's Representative Council (DPR). All of the PD's coalition partners were still too young to face Golkar and PDI-P, who now want to play the opposition role.

Yudhoyono and Kalla's chief had initially backed him to become Golkar chairman in December 2004, ahead of a National Congress in December 2004. When Agung was considered too weak to run against Akbar, Yudhoyono and Kalla threw their weight behind Surya Paloh. Lastly, when Paloh was still too young to run against Akbar, Yudhoyono approved Kalla's bid for the Golkar Chairmanship. Kalla was elected as Golkar's new Chairman on December 19, 2004.

Yudhoyono's victory over Kalla posposed a question. Although Yudhoyono was now able to pass legislation, Kalla's new position meant that in one sense, he was now more powerful than Yudhoyono.

Kalla, a man of controversy, assembled the ministers and signed a vice presidential order directing action on recovering Aceh after the Indian Ocean tsunami, showing the first signs of rivalry. The vice presidential decree was unconstitutional, but Yudhoyono denied that it was he who gave Kalla the orders.

Yudhoyono went to New York in September 2005 to attend the annual United Nations Summit. Although Yudhoyono had left Kalla to take over proceedings at Jakarta, he seemed to be intent on keeping an eye on matters at home. To get ministers' news, Yudhoyono will hold a video conference from New York. According to critics, such behaviour was an act of mistrust by Yudhoyono. The idea was not convincing until Kalla turned up for one video conference and then spent the remainder of the time worrying about Golkar matters.

Although conditions eased, and with Golkar taking another cabinet position in the reshuffle, the suspected rivalry resurfaced in October 2006, when Yudhoyono established the Presidential Work Unit for the Organization of Reform Program (UKP3R). Critics questioned whether the unit was created by Yudhoyono to exclude Kalla from the government. Yudhoyono was quick to announce that in supervising UKP3R, he would be aided by Kalla.

Kalla has been often identified as a possible Golkar Party candidate in the 2014 presidential election. Kalla ran in the Indonesian presidential election in 2009, with former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Wiranto as his running mate, finishing third with 12.4% of the vote.

During a dedication service held by the Indonesian Red Cross headquarters in Riau province on February 3, 2012, Kalla expressed his willingness to run in the presidential election in 2014 if he has enough federal funding. Kalla also stated that he had no intention of running in the 2014 presidential election by May 2012. Despite polls that indicated that Kalla was likely to be more electable than Bakrie, Kalla said he had no bad feelings about party chairman Abuzal Bakrie's upcoming inauguration as a presidential candidate for the Golkar Party and that he had no intention of competing with him. Bakrie was officially named as the Golkar Party's 2014 presidential candidate at Golkar's National Leadership meeting in Bogor on June 29, 2012.

Nevertheless, the situation in Indonesia's volatile political scene can be expected to change in the run-up to the 2014 presidential election. Jusuf Kalla said in late 2012 that he was ready to leave Golkar and join the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), with former President Megawati as the president and vice president candidate. "I am not representing Golkar Party, there is no point in opposing it," Kalla said.

Joko Widodo, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP)'s presidential candidate, named Jusuf Kalla as his vice presidential running mate at Gedung Juang, Jakarta, on May 19th.

"They loved nice air from Indonesia for 11 months, and they never thanked us." Kalla's second term as vice president condemned neighbor countries Malaysia and Singapore for broadcasting their dissatisfaction with the repeated smoke created by Indonesian forest fires in March 2015. They've been suffering as a result of the haze for one month, and they're getting sick." Kalla resigned in a similar situation during the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, while Indonesian authorities inquired "why should there be an apology." During his first term as the vice president's first term, Kalla had made similar remarks between 2005 and 2007. "PSI levels in some parts of Indonesia are at nearly 2,000," said the Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs, K. Shanmugam, although noting that "PSI levels in those areas are at least 2,000" have "shocking remarks made," from "shocking figures made at national levels, including the people or ours, without any sympathy or sense of responsibility." The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics' pollution index, which had reached 2,986 in Central Kalimantan, has reported values over 350 to be "hazardous." Later in September, Kalla maintained that Indonesia is "open" and that "Singapore, please come if you want to help." "Don't just talk"; this was amid earlier rejections (in the month) by Indonesia of Singapore's offers of assistance. Kalla said in November that the destruction of Indonesian forests was "not only our problem" because "foreign people" were also responsible. "You take [Indonesian products], pay $5, and then bring it here and sell it for $100," he scolded foreign firms. If not, Indonesian companies will receive $5, and the world will feel the heat... All of this has to be paid for by the world. Don't ever accuse Indonesian" - don't always accuse Indonesia. He also stated that since Singapore and Malaysia did not thank Indonesia for "fresh air from Sumatra, Kalimantan," there was no need for Indonesia to apologise for the smoke created by Indonesian forest fires.

Kalla told the United Nations Development Programme not to finance or implement a LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community initiative in Indonesia in February. Kalla has expressed opposition to LGBT activists in Indonesia, a decision he considered at the time as deviating from social values.

Despite Singapore reportedly being the "country where the largest number of" Indonesian fugitives had fled in April 2016, Kalla criticized how Singapore, "never wants to sign" an extradition deal with Indonesia. While Kalla was also Vice President, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that an Indonesia-Singapore extradition treaty cum defense cooperation agreement had been signed in 2007, the Indonesian House of Representatives had ratified the deal, but the treaty was still pending ratification by the Indonesian House of Representatives. In 2013, the Indonesian House had rejected the dual deal as "not favorable to Indonesia," claiming that "extradition and defense are two distinct topics."

In December 2018, the topic of China's Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the minority's Muslim minority was brought up in parliament. "We don't want to interfere in the internal affairs of another country," Kalla said.

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