Guesswhat? Sinta Nuriyah

Guesswhat? Sinta Nuriyah

Ousted president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid may have grand
plans about building democracy in Indonesia, but his wife has
asked his supporters to allow the former first family a bit of
privacy.

"I only ask them to understand that we are also a family and
that we need some time for ourselves," Sinta Nuriyah, the former
first lady, told The Jakarta Post in Washington D.C. earlier this
week.

Sinta, who was accompanying Abdurrahman for a medical check-
up, said she could not stop people from seeing her husband.

"It's OK for Bapak, but the children and I are tired of having
visitors for 24 hours a day," she said, recalling the seemingly
endless stream of guests that her husband received at the Jakarta
presidential palace during his 21-month presidency.

On his return to Jakarta on Friday, Gus Dur vowed to fight for
democracy in Indonesia and that he would turn his private
residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta, into his center for his
struggle.

Sinta said she was proud that many people needed her husband,
but she said her family also wanted some time with him alone.

She showed little sign of fatigue or stress in spite of the
ordeal that she and her family went through this past month as
Gus Dur struggled to keep the presidency and then traveled
abroad.

Acknowledging that the family went through a lot of hard
times, she said she drew her strength from God.

Sinta in turn became the source of strength for the rest of
the family.

"I don't know what we would have done without her," Yenny
Zannuba Chafsoh Rahman, the second of Gus Dur's four daughters,
said.(Yenni Djahidin)