Gus Dur upbeat about medical test results
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite his strong aversion to what he claims is a discriminatory regulation, half-blind Muslim cleric Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid underwent the arduous medical examination required by the KPU on Thursday.
Passing the examination is a prerequisite to being allowed to contest the July 5 presidential election.
Gus Dur arrived at the General Elections Commission-designated Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Central Jakarta at around 6:35 a.m, just minutes after another presidential candidate, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had arrived.
Vice Presidential aspirant Jusuf Kalla arrived at the same hospital at around 7:15, also for a medical.
"I will pass the medical if the Supreme Court overturns the General Elections Commission's regulation on health requirements," Gus Dur told reporters after the eight-hour-long examination.
Accompanied by his wife, Sinta Nuriyah, and daughter Yenny Zannuba, Gus Dur was the last to complete the medical. Susilo, the former coordinating minister for political and security affairs, and Kalla, the former coordinating minister for people's welfare, finished earlier.
Gus Dur, who was removed from the presidency, ostensibly for incompetence, in July 2001, has been declared the sole presidential candidate of the National Awakening Party (PKB), a political party established by the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
His presidential ambitions, however, were placed in doubt after the General Elections Commission (KPU) issued health requirements for presidential and vice presidential candidates.
According to the KPU requirements, presidential and vice presidential candidates have to have good eyesight, among other things.
Condemning the requirement as discriminatory, Gus Dur and his party, the PKB, have legally challenged the ruling and the election legislation, seeking judicial reviews from both the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.
The Constitutional Court ruled earlier that the Election Law No. 12/2003 did not violate the 1945 Constitution. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision on May 5, just days before the registration period for presidential and vice presidential candidates closes on May 7.
Many disabled people across the country, especially those who are visually impaired, have launched protests against the "discriminatory" regulation.
IDI chairman Farid Anfasa Moeloek refused to reveal the results of Gus Dur's medical.
"Gus Dur sat his medical as scheduled. We cannot reveal the results as we have to submit them to the KPU," said Moeloek, who is also a former minister of health under former president B.J. Habibie.
He said the results would be discussed by a team of 70 doctors from various universities during a plenary session before they would be submitted to the KPU.
It will clearly be difficult for Gus Dur to pass the eyesight requirement set by the KPU as he has lost most of his vision due to several strokes.
Susilo and Kalla, who have been nominated by the Democratic Party as its presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively, both expressed optimism that they would pass their medicals.
"But its up to the doctors. They know more about our health than we do," Susilo said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the KPU's working group in charge of the presidential election, Anas Urbaningrum, said that the commission would not reveal the results of the medicals immediately.
"The results will be announced when all the presidential and vice presidential candidates have registered with the commission," Anas said at the hospital.
He said the registration of the presidential and vice presidential candidates would start after all the results of the legislative election had been confirmed.