Yusuf Kalla-Gus Dur conflicts continue

The conflicts between President Abdurrahman Wahid and his former aid Yusuf Kalla continued with the latter challenging the President to show which one of his companies that had failed to carry out government projects, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

Former trade and industry Kalla said that the charge made by Gus Dur, the popular nickname of the President, was baseless. "I will be happy and thankful if Gus Dur could prove that Bukaka has a bad track record in the doing the government's projects," he said.

Gus Dur told reporters late last week that Kalla's company PT Bukaka-Wijaya Karya Mega Eltra was disqualified because the company had a bad track record such as being unable to complete the works according to schedules.

Bukaka won a contract in late 1999 to build a US$75 million power transmission network linking the Paiton power plant in East Java and a power distribution network in West Java. But the contract was annulled in May this year on grounds that the company was financially unfit to carry out the project.

Kalla said that the state electricity company PLN cancelled the contract due to an instruction from the President, who wanted the project to be awarded to other companies.

Gus Dur dismissed Kalla in April from his ministerial post on suspicion of his involvement in KKN, the local acronym for corruption, collusion and nepotism practices.

Gus Dur previously said that the contract was cancelled because Bukaka obtained the contract through KKN practices. (*)