Jusuf Kalla and the Habit of Owning Power

Jusuf Kalla has long been treated as a political heavyweight, but influence is not the same as statesmanship. His recent claim that Jokowi became president because of him was not just a boast. It was a window into a deeper pattern that has followed him for years. He does not merely operate within power. He tries to define, explain, and claim it as his own. That is what makes him dangerous in the political sense. Not because he is loud, but because he is calculated enough to make possession sound like contribution.

The Deputy Who Never Looked Secondary

During the SBY presidency, JK was not content with the symbolism of the vice presidency. He became chairman of Golkar in December 2004, and that position gave him substantial leverage inside parliament. The historical record of that period also notes that he was in some respects more powerful than SBY in terms of legislative influence. That kind of imbalance is not a minor footnote. It shows a man who could turn formal office into informal command. It also shows how quickly a deputy can stop behaving like a deputy once he realizes the system needs him.

The tension was not hidden. During SBY’s presidency, critics raised eyebrows when he left JK in charge during a 2005 U.N. trip. JK had also taken the initiative after the 2004 tsunami by gathering ministers and issuing a vice presidential decree to begin rehabilitation work in Aceh, a step whose legality was later questioned despite SBY’s claim that he had ordered it. These details matter because they reveal a recurring political style. JK does not simply support an administration. He tests how far the administration can be bent around him.

That is why his reputation should not be romanticized. He is often praised as shrewd, but shrewdness without restraint becomes a kind of political greed. He seems most comfortable when he can stand close to power while quietly expanding his own reach. That may look effective from the outside, but it weakens the meaning of institutional roles. A vice president should reinforce the presidency, not compete with it for gravity. JK’s career shows how easily a talented operator can make a system feel less like governance and more like a contest for ownership.

The Politician Who Wants the Script

His recent remarks about Jokowi show that the same habit never really left him. He said Jokowi became president because of him, adding that he brought Jokowi from Solo to Jakarta and proposed him to Megawati for the Jakarta gubernatorial race. That is not modest recollection. It is a claim of authorship over a political rise that belonged to far more than one man. Jokowi’s response was telling in its restraint, saying he was nobody and just a village person. The contrast is stark. One man tries to own the story. The other refuses to let himself be turned into a trophy.

This is what makes JK so politically exhausting. He does not merely remember his role. He enlarges it. He speaks as if his intervention is the decisive key to every outcome, as if public history becomes clearer only when filtered through his presence. That is a powerful trick in politics because it gives the illusion of indispensability. But it is also a selfish trick because it shrinks the contributions of everyone else. A mature statesman lets history distribute credit. JK appears to prefer editing the credit list himself.

Even his comments on the diploma controversy fit this pattern. His spokesman suggested that Jokowi show the original diploma publicly to end the prolonged social cost of the dispute. On the surface, that sounds practical. In substance, it is another example of JK stepping into a public controversy as though his voice naturally belongs at the center of it. He cannot seem to resist becoming the elder authority in every room. That is the real problem. His politics are not only about influence. They are about control over narrative, memory, and attention. A country should be wary of any politician who needs to be remembered as the hand behind every door that opens.