Guess What? Juwono Sudarsono

During the Soeharto era, a ministerial post would mean money and a life of luxury. But under former president B.J. Habibie and the incumbent President Abdurrahman Wahid, the job has meant lots of stress, not to mention the threat of dismissal at any time.

Former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono looked thinner and more pale when he visited The Jakarta Post's office on Monday.

"I've just recovered from a mild stroke," said the professor of social and political science at the University of Indonesia.

The first civilian in 47 years to hold such a powerful post, if only for 10-months, was reportedly under heavy pressure when he was appointed to the position. A number of top generals were rumored to have "chased after" him.

"No... no, it was just a rumor. Those generals have been very nice to me. It's just that during my term in office I had almost no chance to undergo regular exercise," said the 58-year-old former deputy governor of the army think-thank National Resilience (Lemhanas).

He later admitted, however, he started to suffer from stress when he was still minister for education and culture.

"I felt so depressed taking part in an endless discourse on national curriculum. Those education experts could rarely make a solution to create better school curriculum," Juwono said.

One of his ministry's difficult tasks was to "erase" the roles of former president Soeharto in the national history books.

"As the minister of education, the job was really complicated and gave me headaches, which probably contributed to my recent stroke," he recalled. (raw)