JK: I Facilitated Prabowo Buying Paper Factory In Kalimantan

JAKARTA - The 10th and 12th vice presidents of the Republic of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla (JK) said that his party facilitated Prabowo Subianto to buy a paper factory of PT Kiani Lestari in Kalimantan.

"Prabowo came to my office, and he wanted to buy a paper factory of PT Kiani Lestari owned by Bob Hasan which was stuck at Bank Mandiri," said JK in Jakarta as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, January 10.

JK revealed this when explaining the origin of Prabowo's PT Kiani Lestari ownership which was mentioned in the third presidential election debate at Istora Senayan, Jakarta.

JK said that his party explained this after receiving several questions so that he chose to provide an official statement at his residence, Jalan Brawijaya Raya No. 6 South Jakarta.

According to JK, the land controlled by Prabowo was the result of the purchase of a paper factory of PT Kiani Lestari in 2004 to Bank Mandiri of 150 million US dollars.

"I called Mandiri President Director Agus Martowardojo. I said it is true that Kiani paper will be sold? How much will it cost? We will sell 150 million dollars and there are already interested in Singapore, don't sell it to Singapore better to national entrepreneurs, Mr. Asalcash. So in front of me there is Mr. Prabowo but cash 150 million dollars," said JK explaining.

After the meeting, said JK, Prabowo then bought the factory. The factory is a paper factory, so it has land for industrial forests covering an area of approximately 200,000 hectares.

JK ensured that his party had never given land to Prabowo because the real thing only facilitated purchases between Prabowo and Bank Mandiri.

"I didn't give him land, but he bought it, the factory had land permits, but different districts," said JK.

During the evening presidential debate, Sunday (7/1), Anies said half of the total number of TNI soldiers in Indonesia did not own a home, but on the other hand the Minister of Defense had more than 340,000 hectares of land.

Based on this statement, Prabowo then denied that the data was wrong and asked Anies not to quote the wrong data. Prabowo's rebuttal was made when Anies corrected his statement at the beginning.