Taufik flown to Australia for checkup
Taufik flown to Australia for checkup
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Taufik Kiemas, the husband of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, was flown to Perth, Australia on Tuesday evening,
after being treated overnight for heart problems at Jakarta's
Harapan Kita Hospital.
Taufik was admitted to the hospital at midnight on Monday and
received immediate treatment for several heart complaints.
One of the presidential doctors, Ganesja Harimurti, said there
was nothing serious about Taufik's health and that he would only
be receiving a heart checkup in Perth.
"Yes, I am going to Perth to accompany him but he is not in a
serious condition. This is just a checkup," she told The Jakarta
Post at Harapan Kita Hospital.
Ganesja added that Taufik would be treated at the same
hospital where he had a by-pass operation late in 1999. Taufik
underwent a heart operation not long after his wife President
Megawati Soekarnoputri was elected vice president in October
1999.
One presidential staff member said that Taufik would be
admitted to Mount Hospital in Perth. He also said that the first
family's daughter Puan Maharani would accompany Taufik to
Australia.
A legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan), which Megawati chairs, told the Post that
Taufik was rushed to Harapan Kita Hospital after he displayed all
the symptoms of a heart attack at around 11:30 p.m. on Monday.
"He was apparently very tired after a punishing schedule. He
had been to Palembang on Saturday, flew to Singapore on Sunday
and got back on Monday evening. On Monday night he complained of
an irregular heartbeat and some chest pain," the legislator said,
after visiting Taufik at the hospital.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri saw her husband off at
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Tuesday. Taufik took a
commercial flight to Perth, which was scheduled to depart at 5
p.m.
The President canceled her schedule on Tuesday, which included
a weekly meeting at the headquarters of PDI Perjuangan, to stay
at the hospital.
Many government officials visited Taufik at Harapan Kita
Hospital, including Vice President Hamzah Haz, several Cabinet
ministers and legislators.
"He is conscious and able to speak," Hamzah told journalists.
House of Representatives Deputy Speaker A.M. Fatwa said that
Megawati would not accompany her husband to Australia because it
was not urgent enough and that the President had to deal with
many issues ahead of the People's Consultative Assembly Annual
Session on Nov. 1.
Taufik, 58, is known as a businessman and a senior legislator
from Megawati's PDI Perjuangan party.
He has often been considered to be one of the prominent
figures who supported the ascendancy of Megawati to the
presidency after the ousting former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
However, some of his political opponents have dubbed him a
"dirty" businessman and accused him of frequently meddling in
state affairs.