Gus Dur fit for office: Doctor

JAKARTA (JP): Chief of President Abdurrahman Wahid's medical team denied on Friday reports suggesting that the head of state was medically unfit to perform presidential duties.

"His health is good and there is no problem," Umar Wahid, who is also Abdurrahman's younger brother, said, adding that the President had a routine medical checkup on Thursday.

He denied reports that presidential doctors had sent a letter to the House of Representatives (DPR) suggesting that Abdurrahman, who has been criticized for his erratic leadership, was not fit to run the country.

Umar also questioned the validity of the medical reports now being studied by some House legislators. He said the reports had been written by doctors who had never examined the President and were based on secondhand information.

Umar was referring to House Speaker Akbar Tandjung's statement on Thursday that the DPR would meet with a team of four doctors on Monday to hear their report on the President's health condition.

The team consists of neurologist Soeharko Kasran, ophthalmologist Rahman R. Saman, physician Hadiwitarto and psychiatrist Suryanto.

Copies of the medical report, circulated at the House, suggest that, from a medical perspective, Abdurrahman, who is clinically blind and has been weakened by at least two strokes and diabetes, is no longer fit to carry out his duties.

Abdurrahman's poor sight and history of strokes was ignored by his proponents, the loose coalition of Muslim-based parties called the Axis Force, who nominated him for the presidency in 1999.

Akbar admitted later in the day that the report was only the four doctors' personal analysis and not based on a direct medical examination of Gus Dur, as the President is commonly known.

"Legislators who are interested in the issue could take it to their own faction for discussion by the House's consultative body," he said, adding that, in his opinion, the President was medically fit for office.

Deputy House Speaker A.M. Fatwa insisted, however, that the doctors' analysis was valid.

"I recently asked the President to step down voluntarily because I know he is physically unfit to carry out his presidential duties," Fatwa, a leading figure in the Axis Force, said.

Separately, chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) Achmad Djojosugito said on Friday that publishing medical records of a person without the latter's consent is a violation of the profession's code of ethics.

"A doctor, according to the code, is obliged to treat all patients equally, especially concerning the privacy of a patient's health status.

"The health status of a patient is the right of the latter to know ... and only he or she has the sole right to reveal it to other parties or the public," he said.

The patient, however, can ask the doctor to notify other parties on their behalf, he added.

"Therefore, if doctors deliberately reveal a person's health status for certain interests, they could be considered as having violated the code of ethics," he said.

Achmad added that it is also the patient's right to seek a second opinion concerning his or her illness.

"But still, the original doctor is obliged to keep the patient's medical status confidential," he added.

Meanwhile, rector of the Purwokerto-based Jendral Soedirman University, Rubiyanto Misman, accused the four doctors of having political motives.

"The medical report was a censure to the President. It's part of the political maneuver to topple Gus Dur," he told The Jakarta Post. (45/byg/edt/rms)