IN THE end nothing would sway President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from his ultimate choice of central bank governor Boediono as his running mate in the three-way July 8 presidential elections.

And why should it have? Despite all the talk about securing support from political parties, it was always going to be his prerogative as the incumbent President to select someone he feels comfortable with.

As I opined a fortnight ago, an independent candidate would take fractious party politics out of play - while allowing the President to bring in a loyal retainer who will create few waves, but make a constructive contribution to economic management.

What the parties and the coalition-obsessed Indonesian media have always forgotten is that it was Dr Yudhoyono who made the vice-presidency what it is today. He could just as easily return it to the sleepy sinecure it once was.

There was no similar outcry from potential coalition partners in 2004, but of course back then Dr Yudhoyono was only a minority leader and running mate Jusuf Kalla did not even occupy a position in Golkar.

Government insiders now claim that Dr Yudhoyono chose Mr Kalla in his own right, not as a member of Golkar where at one point he had been a contender for the party's presidential nomination. Indeed, despite all indications to the contrary, the President was reported to have been distinctly unhappy when Mr Kalla was handed the Golkar chairmanship two months after the pair won the final round of the 2004 election. Ministerial sources say that at a limited Cabinet meeting several weeks ago, not long after the Yudhoyono-Kalla split became public, the Vice-President actually apologised to the President for taking the party post.

This round, we have been subjected to the unseemly spectacle of the syariah-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) loudly complaining that Mr Boediono wasn't Islamic enough - in a country where 88 per cent of the population is Muslim.

Whenever was that a criteria for anything? In fact, in naming Mr Boediono as his running mate, Dr Yudhoyono made a point of describing him as an 'honest, modest Muslim' who would help run a 'clean, responsive and corruption-free government'.

In other words, there is a lot more to the No. 2 job than just being an overly devout Muslim, particularly when Indonesia needs all the sound economic minds it has to get the country out of the current global recession.

The President also pointedly referred to the fact that Mr Boediono came without political baggage or a hidden business agenda, significantly the two main irritants in his relationship with Mr Kalla.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times