Pontianak – Supporters of presidential aspirant Jusuf Kalla have talked up his talents as a peace broker, saying it makes him fit for the office of president.

Vice chairman of the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto ticket's national campaign team, Alwi Hamu, told supporters in West Kalimantan on Friday that Kalla's ability to reconcile conflicts contributed to his leadership qualities.

"Since his childhood, Kalla did not like fighting but used to reconcile those who engaged in fighting," Alwi said in a campaign meeting speech for the upcoming July 8 presidential election.

He spoke about Kalla's involvement as vice president during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's current administration, where he helped to resolve various communal conflicts around the country, such as in Ambon, Aceh and Poso.

Kalla is scheduled to campaign in Jayapura, Papua, today, where he will hold a dialogue with local people to hear their grievances as input for possible action in the nation's troubled easternmost province if he is elected president.

The chief of Kalla's campaign team in Papua, Paskalis Kossy, said in Jayapura on Friday that the presidential hopeful would try to get firsthand information about the situation there.

"As a presidential candidate from eastern Indonesia, Jusuf Kalla wants to hear the complaints of his brothers and sisters in the easternmost area of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

"Indeed, Papuans are in desperate need of a good listener, a leader who is prepared to listen to their complaints and help them get out of their misery."

Kalla's vice presidential running mate, Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, who was campaigning in East Java on Friday, was a military chief under Suharto's New Order regime and has been accused of involvement in a number of past human rights violations. (Antara)