“Golkar not to repeat funny convention” says Antara.

Jusuf Kalla, vice president of Indonesia and current Golkar chairman, is reported by Antara to have said that Golkar will continue to select its presidential candidate through a convention but will hold it in a more democratic way and without the “funny things” that had marked the past convention in 2004.

Jusuf Kalla – possibly smiling.

Last time, says Kalla, the conference had elements of farce, hilarity, and even heaviness:

We don’t want to repeat the funny and heavy convention that was held in the past in which a fortune teller, an actress, a soap opera player, and a cadre of another political party took part.

Kalla advocated more democratic practises for the next conference before the 2009 elections, as some sort of method to keep out the weirdos and attention seekers, and presumably, the heavy things or heavy people.

But, when asked what the convention would “look like”, he said the matter had not yet been discussed. Any such discussion would take place one to one a half years before the actual convention.