NTB prays for wounded ex-governor

NTB prays for wounded ex-governor

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: Local residents are praying for the health of a popular former West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) governor Gatot Suherman who was among the passengers injured when a Garuda Indonesia airliner crash-landed on Wednesday on a river in Central Java.

Suherman is being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the Central Java city of Surakarta.

Speaker of the NTB legislative council L. Serinata said on Friday that Suherman had rendered outstanding service to the province.

During his tenure in office, Serinata said the people in the province no longer faced food shortages after Suherman's move to change the land management system in 1980s.

Apart from that, Serinata said the former governor was well- known among local people for his closeness to farmers and other villagers.

The Boeing 737 made a forced landing on a stretch of the Bengawan Solo river beside the village of Serenan in the Klaten regency in bad weather. Only one flight attendant was killed in the crash. --Antara