Jusuf Kalla has the common touch

The villagers and others whose lives and businesses have been seriously damaged by the non-stop hot and stinking ooze now covering hundreds of hectares were rightly furious - and demanding compensation. They were in no mood for bland assurances.

Kalla deftly ad-libbed his way through the claims and counter-claims. He bluntly accused the company (linked to a fellow minister Aburizal Bakrie) of being at fault and ordered payouts. That sort of plain speaking is unusual in Indonesian politics - unless directed at another nation.

Inevitably the idea that Kalla might go for the top job in the 2009 election has taken root. But it’s unlikely to flourish - the terrain is wrong.

Kalla is from South Sulawesi and however popular he becomes the geography of his birth is a major handicap in a country where ethnicity is more important than education.

Java is the nation’s most heavily populated island - the source and centre of all power. It’s a given that the country has to be run by a Javanese.

Then there’s his age. The man may be spry but if by some fluke he did become the nation’s seventh president he’d be 73 by the time his term finished. Running Indonesia is no job for a pensioner and Kalla says he’s not interested.

Of course he has to say that or the partnership would be untenable.

But there’s one thing more. Kalla seems to have slipped into the VP job as though it was tailor-made. He usually looks at ease and in charge - and that’s not always the situation with his boss. Kalla isn’t into photo opportunities or bland comments and seems little fazed by criticism.

In a country where protocol is more important than policy, jolly little Kalla as VP can leave the salutes and parades to his more uptight superior, and get on with being Mr Can Do.

At the moment both appear happy with the arrangement and the public seems to have adjusted. Whether it can last for three more years is another head-scratcher.