Keno Gunawan & Muninggar Sri Saraswati – Presidential candidate and businessman Jusuf Kalla struck back on Friday against a statement by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that a president whose family engaged in business would not be able to govern well.

A day earlier, Yudhoyono also said the 1997-98 financial crisis had been made worse by the involvement of government officials whose families ran large businesses.

Kalla, who is the incumbent vice president, responded on Friday by saying that "if there was a ban on the families of state officials trading or doing business, I think it would be discrimination and a violation of human rights."

Speaking while campaigning in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Kalla said that the involvement of state officials' relatives in business should not be a problem if they conducted their activities in accordance with the law.

"An entrepreneur is doing a good job," he said. "If there is no entrepreneur, there is no trader, so who will pay taxes and who will provide jobs for others?"

The Kalla family business, NV Hadji Kalla, controls automobile distribution in eastern Indonesia.

In Jakarta, Kalla spokesman Bambang Soesatyo said that Yudhoyono's speech was "full of prejudice."

"Currently, there is talk in public that Yudhoyono has made use of his power to employ his relatives, his brothers-in-law and close aides, in a number of important and strategic positions, be it in the military, banks or state-owned enterprises. "Indonesia needs a leader who is free from nepotism," he said.

Bambang referred to Yudhoyono's brother-in-law, Maj. Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, who became the commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) last year.

Another Yudhoyono brother-in-law, Gatot M. Suwondo, was installed as the president director of state-owned Bank Negara Indonesia in 2008.

And yet another brother-in-law of the president, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Erwin Sudjono, was named the military headquarters chief of staff for general affairs in 2007 before his retirement.

Bambang said Indonesia needed a leader who "could set up employment opportunities, instead of a leader who manipulates numbers as if there is an economic improvement, although the numbers reveal that many companies and factories have closed down."

Yudhoyono, whose two sons are not involved in business, openly referred to the negative aspects of state officials' relatives being involved in business while addressing supporters for his presidential campaign in Jakarta on Thursday evening.

Yudhoyono also irked his other opponent in the election, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, when he said in his speech that his government had inherited problems from the previous administration, including rampant corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Yudhoyono did not mention Megawati by name, but she was his predecessor in the office. "Go ahead, name [whose government] he mentioned," Megawati said on Friday in Jakarta, responding to questions about Yudhoyono's statements.

Tjahjo Kumolo, a lawmaker from Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that Yudhoyono should have been open in naming the government in question as Megawati's.

"His government inherited nothing from the previous government," he said. "Megawati's government work was based on the Broad Guidelines on State Policy [GBHN], while his government is based solely on his own political promises," Tjahjo said.

Before the amendment of the Constitution in early 2000, the government was required to work within the GBHN, which were produced by the People's Consultative Assembly.