"I don`t mind being called an `SBY bodyguard` or `SBY bootlicker`. It doesn`t matter," Dipo Alam said here on Saturday.
He was commenting on criticism of his action in admonishing members of the Second United Indonesia Cabinet that they should defend SBY if the president was attacked by the media.
Dipo said that his political party was the party of SBY`s constituents who in the 2009 presidential election accounted for 60 percent of the vote.
"In the 2009 presidential election, SBY was elected for a second term (2009 - 2014) in just one round. He was elected thanks to his good capability and popularity as a leader," he said.
He said he did not subscribe to the view that SBY won the election because he was supported by political parties in the coalition. Its was the people themselves who had elected the best leader they could have, he said.
"So it is the people who made up the 60 percent of the vote in 2009 that is the real party, the genuine political party," he said.
To him, Dipo said, a position in government was a mandate, namely the mandate of the 60-percent vote. "So, constitutionally, SBY has the mandate to carry out his obligation as a president until the end of his term of office in 2014," he said.
"Up to now, I think SBY is still the best leader to carry out the people`s mandate compared with other political leaders. He has good integrity and won the people`s praise," Dipo added.
Therefore, Dipo was ready to guard SBY in carrying out his constitutional duties as a president until 2014.
He said he was ready to answer in kind all the criticism levelled at the president by political leaders, national or foreign media, legislators and state institutions to weaken or discredit SBY`s leadership.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
