Matori receives treatment at home after slow recovery

Muninggar Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil has been discharged from Pondok Indah Hospital, South Jakarta, where he was treated for a stroke, but it remains unclear when he will return to work at his office.

Defense ministry secretary-general Air Marshal Suprihadi said on Wednesday Matori was currently undergoing medication at his home in South Jakarta.

"I visited him three days ago. We updated each other. Everything was good," he said.

However, Suprihadi said, Matori was still unable to walk but could speak a little and recognize visiting guests.

Suprihadi could not say when Matori would be back at his office. "That's for the doctors to decide," he said.

Matori has been suffering from a stroke since August. A month later, he was airlifted to Singapore to undergo medical treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital until earlier December. Two weeks ago, he was moved to Pondok Indah Hospital for further medication.

Suprihadi, speaking after installing First. Adm. Darmawan as the ministry's new director general for defense potential affairs, said that despite months of absence by Matori, activities at his office were running smoothly.

The inauguration of such a director general would normally have been led by the defense minister.

However, Matori's illness has delayed several strategic decisions related to defense affairs, including the Navy's plan to merge the Western and Eastern naval fleets this year.

Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh has said that a single naval fleet would be sufficient to protect the country's vast maritime territories and would be more efficient in budgetary terms.

However, the plan has not been implemented, as it awaits approval from the defense ministry.

Also, the Navy's plan to buy several corvettes from the Netherlands has had to await endorsement from Matori.

Since Matori was hospitalized, his ministry's secretary- general and directors general were jointly in charge of the minister's day-to-day duties.

However, authority to make strategic decisions at the defense ministry has been given to Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

House of Representatives members have called for the replacement of Matori or the appointment of an interim minister to take over his job until he has recovered from his stroke, arguing that the defense ministry was too important to be left without a chief.

Yet, President Megawati Soekarnoputri appears to be reluctant to replace Matori until her Cabinet completes its five-year term next year.

Matori, a former chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), backed Megawati's ascent to power in 2001 after the ouster of the party's founder, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, from the presidency.

As the chief of the PKB patrons' board, Gus Dur later fired Matori from the country's fourth-largest party and installed former foreign minister Alwi Shihab as his replacement.

However, Matori claimed he remained the legitimate leader of PKB despite a lack of support from Nahdlatul Ulama ulemas.

Eventually, he set up a new political group called the Democratic Glory Party (Pekade), but the General Elections Commission disqualified it from contesting the 2004 elections.