TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In a visit to the Vice Presidential office, VP Jusuf Kalla (JK) told journalists upon granting the permit for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto to purchase 220,000-hectare industrial forestland in East Kalimantan.

Jusuf Kalla mainly agreed because Prabowo planned to establish a business on the land which could boost Indonesia’s export commodities.

“Prabowo paid USD150 million for the bad credit land purchase. We supported him for the fact that it was to boost export commodities. The fact that he owns that is a given. [Also owns] Sinar Mas in Riau, Palembang or other companies,” said Jusuf Kalla to journalists at the VP office on Tuesday.

Read also: Prabowo Shakes Off Jokowi`s Attack on His Vast Land Ownership

Back in 2004, Prabowo asked permission from Jusuf Kalla who was freshly appointed as VP for Susilo “SBY” Bambang Yudhoyono. He expressed his intentions to JK on establishing a paper industry.

“That was back in 2004, maybe just two weeks into as Indonesia’s VP. But this means that I made an objective decision with [Prabowo’s] business plan and he was able to pay it in cash,” JK recalled.

The 220,000-hectare land was confiscated from Bank Mandiri’s bad credit land purchase. Jusuf Kalla remembered ordering Bank Mandiri’s president director at the time, Agus Martowardojo, to let an Indonesian native businessman purchase the confiscated land.

Prabowo Subianto’s vast land ownership was mentioned by incumbent presidential candidate Jokowi in Sunday’s presidential debate.

ANTARA