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)