REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Presidential candidate of the opposition camp Prabowo Subianto announced that General Chairman of Democratic Party and Indonesian sixth president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) agreed to be his national campaigner. Prabowo said it was in accordance to SBY's wish.

According to Prabowo, SBY was mere like a godfather to him. "He is my mentor and this is not just about parties, this is about Magelang," Prabowo joked while referring to military training camp in Central Java where they both trained.

Meanwhile, SBY's son and Chairman of the Joint Task Force Command (Kogasma) of the Democratic Party, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) was positioned equal to Prabowo as steering committe of the national campaign team.

Prabowo also said that Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) cadre, Kwik Kian Gie agreed to help him and Sandiga Uno as his running mate to find solutions to Indonesia's economic problems. Kwik was former coordinating minister for the economy and minister of National Development Planning and National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) chief.

Prabowo and Sandiaga visited SBY at his residence in Kuningan, Jakarta, on Wednesday (Sept 12) night. According to Sandiaga, one of the issues to be discussed was about economic condition. He wanted to ask advises from SBY who has succeeded in facing economic turbulence in 2008 to 2009.

Sandiaga said during SBY's term as Indonesian sixth president, global financial crisis hit the world. Indonesia had to close its stock exchange for several days, but then managed to handle the crisis.

"As a nation, we should think a more strategic issues rather than current issues," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

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