Gus Dur chronological conditions before death

Last condition of health KH Abdurrahman Wahid or Gus Dur and maintenance actions performed before the death of the President's 4. Described in a press conference by the President Director of RSCM (Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital) Akmal Taher, who accompanied the team leader Dr. Wahid, Prof. Yusuf Misbach, and Abdurrahman Wahid's younger brother, Umar Wahid, in Jakarta (5/1).

Akmal said, "Any news about the irregularities related to medical care and treatment for Gus Dur. The family was not feeling well. We extend this description so people know what really happened."

"The cause of death as Gus Dur, a clot of blood clots that clog the major blood vessels," Akmal said, "and it was a disturbing work of the heart and may lead to heart failure."

December 25, 2009:
At 08.00 RSCM Director Akmal Taher received notification from the Director Soetomo Hospital Surabaya that the former President of Indonesia is the fourth will be taken to RSCM because it is generally weak and it's time for Gus Dur to wash the blood in the RSCM. According to Akmal, Wahid routine in RSCM dialysis three times a week. The family also told doctors that Gus Dur had dehydration and low blood sugar levels.

At 12:45 Gus Dur and his entourage arrived at the RSCM and immediately taken to the Hemodialysis (dialysis) to undergo a thorough examination to determine if he deserves to wash the blood.

At 13:30 Wahid undergoing preparation for Hemodialysis. During preparation he could receive visitors and communicate well with guests. When that Gus Dur, among others have visitors by the Minister of Health Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar.

Wahid 18:00 undergoing dialysis process. Until the process is complete dialysis stable condition that he later brought to the treatment room in room 116 building A RSCM. There, the team physician observation to determine the possibility of action or extract a tooth extraction for two weeks previously known to have an abscess.

December 26-27, 2009
Gus Dur stable condition. Doctors take action for the extraction of teeth that the plan is done by anesthesia (anesthesia) in the local operating room. "Although only be done with local anesthesia, tooth extraction performed in the operating room so that his condition could be monitored intensively from time to time," said Akmal.

December 28, 2009
At 11:00 a team of doctors perform actions tooth extraction with local anesthesia in the operating room. During the operation had been a decrease in heart rate episodes but can be overcome.

At 13:00 Gus Dur was taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for routine monitoring of intensive. He was conscious and his condition is stable.

December 29, 2009
Gus Dur at 10.00 to wash the blood back after condition is declared eligible for dialysis.

At 13:30 dialysis process is complete, Wahid declared a state good enough to be treated in the treatment room so that later he was transferred from ICU to a room 116 in Building A.

December 30, 2009
11:30 Wahid complained great pain on the right buttock to the leg and foot. The doctor did tests and figured there was a blockage in the blood vessels on the right and left legs Gus Dur.

At 12:30 the doctor doing the ultrasound examination and found the local six arteries and right hip left hip. Team doctors also do angiography examination. Since morning Wahid began to shortness of breath, doctors moved him to ICU Heart Center of Integrated Services for the preparation RSCM angiography. The doctor gave an explanation of the medical action plan to the family of the family gave consent.

Medical Team at 14:22 Wahid conditions reported to the Minister of Health. Minister asked the doctors to give the necessary assistance as well as possible and report the progress from time to time.

At 14:40 to 15:08 the doctor doing the examination cardiography and found a large blockage from the major blood vessels or the aorta and the arteries on the left and right pelvis.

At 15:30 the doctor doing the procedure for taking blood clots that clog arteries.

At 17:00 clot retrieval process is complete. During the process of blood clot decrease with decreasing the patient's condition so that doctors and awareness to help with the breathing action tool with respiratory action to improve the patient's condition. It was reported to the Minister of Health, the presidential medical team and medical team RSCM because no notification that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will come to visit.

At 18:15 Wahid critical condition and getting worse, so the doctors decided to perform resuscitation, actions to save lives of patients.

At 18:25 President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived at the RSCM and was met by the family of Gus Dur was in front of the action, about 20 yards from where the patient treated. The President entered the hall and prayer room acts in front of the entrance hall accompanied by Minister of Health acts and daughter Gus Dur.

At 18:30 the President away from the action and talk with the doctors and the Minister of Health. Resuscitation was continued in the action.

At 18:45 Wahid declared dead by a team of doctors. The team doctor reported it to the family and the President.

At 18:55 the President left the RSCM
(www.rainbowdiplomacy.com/wk/photo:mediaindonesia.com)
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Al Jazeera: Ex-Indonesia president laid to rest

Indonesia's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, has been given a state funeral and laid to rest at his birthplace in Jombang, East Java.

Flags were at half mast as a sign of respect for Abdurrahman, who died in hospital on Wednesday aged 69, due to complications arising from diabetes and stroke.

More commonly known as Gus Dur, Abdurrahman became Indonesia's fourth president after Suharto was ousted from power following a student-led uprising against the general's three-decade rule.

Abdurrahman defeated Megawati Sukarnoputri to win the presidency in a parliamentary vote in 1999, even though her Democratic Party of Struggle put in the strongest showing in a general election earlier that year.

She replaced him after he was sacked by the national assembly in 2001 amid unproven allegations of corruption and incompetence.

A religious scholar, Abdurrahman was a critic of Suharto but was himself criticised for his erratic leadership style while he was in office.

Still, he gained a reputation for religious tolerance and reformist policies.

He rose to political prominence as leader of one of the country's biggest mass Islamic movements, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and helped put the country on the path to democracy following Suharto's fall.

'Enormous service'
Indonesia held its first direct presidential election in 2004, which was won by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who remains president after winning re-election this year.

In a nationally-televised address on Thursday, Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to pay Abdurrahman their "highest respects".

"I say this with prayers and hope that he is accepted at the side of God for his enormous service to the public, the nation and our beloved state," he said. (english.aljazeera.net)

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StarTribune: Ex-Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, democratic reformer, dies at 69

By NINIEK KARMINI , Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who briefly ruled during the nation's first tumultuous years of democracy and sought peace in far-flung secessionist provinces, died Wednesday. He was 69.

Wahid, known fondly by his nickname Gus Dur, was a proponent of moderate Islam and democratic reformer who ultimately was unable to implement his ambitious ideas in the vast island state of 235 million people.


During nearly two years in power, from October 1999 to July 2001, Wahid created a broad coalition of unity amid political and financial chaos in the wake of the downfall of late dictator Suharto in 1998 after 32 years.

Wahid had been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta for the past week and died Wednesday evening.

Professor Yusuf Misbach, head of his medical team, said the former president died during surgery to remove a blood clot in his heart. Wahid's condition had deteriorated because of complications with diabetes and kidney failure, he said.

Wahid had struggled with illness for years. He was confined to a wheelchair, lost most of his sight, and suffered serious kidney problems.

"We lost a great statesman who had dedicated all of his life to the nation, struggling for the sake of those suffering from injustice," his younger brother, Solahuddin Wahid, told The Associated Press.

In a nationwide speech on television, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his condolences to the family and announced he will preside over the funeral scheduled for Thursday in Wahid's hometown of Jombang.

He also ordered a week of national mourning and flags lowered to half-staff.

"On behalf of the state government ... I offer the highest condolence," said Yudhoyono, who visited Wahid minutes before he died.

Presidential spokesman Julian Pasha noted Wahid was well regarded among Indonesians.

"We lost one of our greatest figures, who was very much loved by people from all walks of life," said Pasha.

Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil Wahid was born Sept. 7, 1940 in the East Java town of Jombang. He was the son of Wahid Hasyim, an independence hero and a minister of religion in the government of Sukarno, Indonesia's founding father.

Abdurrahman Wahid once led the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Islamic group. As chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, Wahid continued to push for interfaith dialogue and accepted an invitation to visit Israel in October 1994. In 1997, he traveled to Tel Aviv where he jointly signed a peace charter promoted by the Simon Perez Institute.

"He was a very open person ... All minorities, underdogs or those suffering always felt secure with him. That was very extraordinary," said Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Catholic priest. "He was a humanist ... For people like me, he emitted a friendly Islam that made us feel safe."

Wahid was an opponent of Suharto in the dictator's final years in power. Wahid attempted to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate political killings, disappearances and massacres during Suharto's 32-year rule.

Wahid was elected Indonesia's third president on Oct. 20, 1999. While in office, he worked for peaceful solutions to secessionist movements in restive provinces such as Aceh and Papua.

He visited East Timor after it became a new nation and apologized for human rights abuses committed by Indonesian forces during its brutal 24-year occupation. Wahid also removed the powerful Gen. Wiranto from his Cabinet over his alleged role in the bloodshed in East Timor. (Associated Press writer Ali Kotarumalos contributed to this report.)

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Reuters: Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid dies

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Former Indonesian leader Abdurrahman Wahid, a Muslim cleric who served as the country's fourth president after years in opposition to strongman President Suharto, died in hospital on Wednesday at the age of 69.

Wahid, usually known as Gus Dur, was president between 1999 and 2001 after taking office on a wave of optimism in the turmoil following Suharto's fall from power.

"He passed away this afternoon," said his aide Sulaiman, who added that his family was at his bedside at the time and current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was also there.

The head of the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital in central Jakarta said that his condition had been improving until Tuesday, but he was later transferred to intensive care after problems with his respiratory system and blood vessels.

Yudhoyono later said that Wahid would be given a state funeral in Jombang, East Java, on Thursday.

"I ask all Indonesian people to fly flags at half mast for a week as an expression of our deepest condolence," Yudhoyono said in a televised address.

The jocular cleric became the first Indonesian to win a contested presidential vote in October 1999, edging out Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of founding President Sukarno.

But when he assumed the highest office in the world's fourth most populous country he struggled to deal with the broken economy and an unstable and fragmented political system in need of a strong leader and good manager.

His style was often perceived as bumbling and chaotic, and any hope that his penchant for jokes, formidable intellect and political skills would help lead Indonesia through the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy quickly fell flat.

Wahid's presidency ultimately collapsed amid moves to declare a state of emergency when faced with impeachment over allegations of corruption and incompetence, and he was sacked by parliament and replaced by Megawati.

Wahid suffered several strokes, was nearly blind and had diabetes and regular kidney dialysis, but despite his frail health he remained an influential figure in politics.

He was a staunch defender of moderate Islam and secular politics and was the former leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, a Muslim group with some 40 million members.

He also regularly spoke up for the rights of minorities in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The former president's body was carried through a throng of people in the lobby of the hospital in a coffin wrapped in green, the traditional color of Islam, to a waiting car to be taken to the family home in Jakarta. (Additional reporting by Fitri Wulandari; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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BusinessWeek.com: Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesian President, Dies at 69

By Agus Suhana

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, the country’s first democratically elected leader, died yesterday in a Jakarta hospital following a long illness. He was 69.

“We don’t have anyone else of his caliber,” Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the Muslim organization founded by Wahid’s grandfather, said in comments broadcast on TVOne news.

Wahid was elected president Oct. 20, 1999, succeeding B.J. Habibie, who took power a year earlier following four decades under the military dictatorship of Suharto and Sukarno. Wahid won respect as a moderate who helped bridge sectarian divides in the world’s fourth-most populous nation as it emerged from the worst recession in a generation.

He showed it “was possible for the Islamic community to cooperate with non-Muslims at a time when other Islamic activists were moving more in the direction of fundamentalism,” R. William Liddle, political science professor at Ohio State University and a former Fulbright scholar in Indonesia, said by phone. “He was much less successful as a politician.”

Wahid didn’t spell out his economic policies in detail, limiting himself to general statements about the future of Indonesia. Markets reacted negatively to his election, with the rupiah falling 6.3 percent the next day. Investors favored Megawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of the first president, Sukarno.

Worsening relations with lawmakers climaxed when security forces refused to obey his declaration of a state of emergency. On July 23, 2001, Wahid was impeached and forced from office following allegations of involvement in two financial scandals.

‘Unstable,’ Impeached
“Wahid’s presidency was unstable and you could characterize it as drift,” Razeen Sally, a senior lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics, said by phone. “The Indonesian economy wasn’t doing well while he was in office and real reforms were not put in place during his presidency.”

Megawati succeeded him
Born in Jombang, East Java, Aug. 4, 1940, Wahid was the oldest of six brothers. His father, Wahid Hasyim, was minister of religious affairs for Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno.

As a young man, Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, studied at a number of Islamic boarding schools, before moving on to Cairo’s Al-Azhar Islamic University in 1964. In 1966, he left Egypt to study literature at the University of Baghdad, Iraq. He married his wife, Nuriyah, in 1968, and had four children.

In 1970, he returned to Indonesia and from 1972 to 1974, was dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Hasjim Asyari University in Jombang, Java.

Muslim Party
After moving to Jakarta in 1978, Wahid became involved with the Nahdlatul Ulama or NU, then Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, which claimed more than 30 million members.

As one of the earliest and most vocal critics of Suharto, he earned the respect of many reformist figures, though he was always careful to couch his criticism in enigmatic terms. In 1994, he won another five-year term as chairman of NU, over the objections of Suharto, who tried to oust him again in 1996.

“Gus Dur is a symbol of a particular era,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and a former adviser to Habibie. “This was the era of transition from an authoritarian rule to a democracy.”

The moderate form of Islam that Wahid practiced left another legacy, said Ernest Bower, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Moderate Islam
“He embodied that moderate Islam that really characterizes the type of Islam that is practiced in Indonesia today,” Bower said. “He respected civil laws and wanted to keep religion and jurisprudence and governance separate.”

By the time Wahid took office, he had already suffered two strokes and was almost blind. Wahid had been in hospital since Dec. 26, Jusuf Misbach, a member of the presidential medical team, said, according to the detik.com news Web site. Yesterday morning his condition worsened due to complications brought on by stroke, diabetes and heart disease, the site said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last night that Wahid will be buried today in a state ceremony. Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to fly the national flag at half mast for a week. (December 30, 2009, 08:44 PM EST)

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BBCnews: Obituary: Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid, who has died at the age of 69, was one of the most formidable and colourful figures in Indonesian political and religious life.

Wahid, or Gus Dur as he was also known, was born in Jombang, East Java in 1940, the first of five children in a prominent and politically active Muslim family.

His paternal grandfather was the founder of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama, or NU, while his father Wahid Hasyim would go on to be Indonesia's first minister of religious affairs.

The family moved to Jakarta in 1944 where Wahid attended school and was encouraged by his father to read non-Muslim books and newspapers to broaden his horizons.

Studies abroad
He returned to Jombang to attend Muslim school in 1959, where he began work as a teacher and later as a headmaster, and in 1963 received a scholarship to study at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

He continued his studies in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and later in the Netherlands, and eventually returned to Indonesia in 1971, where he worked as a journalist and social commentator, and later as an academic.

In the late 1970s Wahid began to play an active role in the running of the NU - which draws its support of at least 30 million members from Muslims in the rural areas of Java - seeing himself as a reformer of the organisation.

At this time he also had his first political experience, campaigning for the United Development Party, PPP, a Muslim party which was formed as a result of a merger of four Muslim parties including NU.

He became chairman of NU in 1984, but consistently maintained that government should be secular and that faith is a personal matter.

'Kingmaker'
However his position as a moral leader was transformed following the dramatic fall of President Suharto in 1998.

Former Indonesian president Wahid is helped to the podium before addressing the nation in May 2001
Former president Wahid suffered poor health in recent years

In the ensuing unrest, some politicians made increasingly vocal calls for Islam to have an institutionalised role in the state.

Although health problems, especially poor eyesight, limited his effectiveness, Wahid's position as chairman of NU placed him in the role of "kingmaker" following Suharto's downfall.

Wahid and his supporters formed the National Awakening Party, PKB, and after months of prevarication over whether he would actually stand, Wahid was officially declared as presidential candidate in February 1999.

His election as president, in October 1999, came as a shock to many after Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P party had emerged as the winner of Indonesia's parliamentary elections in June that year.

He was seen as a reformer and democrat as well as a man who could unite the country after the chaos surrounding the downfall of Suharto and his authoritarian regime.

Host of problems
But the transition to democracy was never going to be easy and President Wahid's honeymoon was short-lived.

He got off to a good start by curbing the influence of the military over his government.

Against great odds he succeeded in sacking the former armed forces chief and man accused of instigating the destruction of East Timor, General Wiranto.

He also moved early on issues such as the liberalisation of Chinese cultural and religious expression and the release of political prisoners.

He explored trade relations with Israel and agreed a memorandum of understanding, albeit briefly, with the separatist movement in the Sumatran province of Aceh.

But he soon ran into a host of problems, some of them self-made.

Despite a flare-up of sectarian and separatist violence across the country, Mr Wahid embarked on a series of long trips abroad, seeming to ignore problems back home.

His style of leadership soon appeared erratic and unfocused and in particular without any emphasis on the critical issue of economic recovery.

Political isolation
But perhaps his most controversial move was the sacking of two senior ministers from the cabinet without any proper explanation.

This also exposed the weakness of his coalition government as the main parties on whose support he depended began to turn against him.

Wahid's presidency ultimately collapsed following unproven allegations of corruption. One of the allegations involved the theft of $4.1m from the national food agency by people claiming to be acting on his behalf.

He was impeached by the Indonesian parliament in July 2001, and replaced by his deputy, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Less than two years after his election, he was a politically isolated man, whose inability to govern rendered him an almost pathetic figure who refused to leave the palace despite being replaced by parliament.

In recent years he had suffered several strokes, kidney problems and was nearly blind.

He remained an influential figure in Indonesian politics, and a staunch defender of secular politics and moderate Islam. (BBCNews Page last updated at 19:07 GMT, Wednesday, 30 December 2009)

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MJTimes: President Abdurrahman Wahid has died at age 69

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A hospital nurse says former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has died. He was 69.

Chief nurse Buwahyuat at the Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta told The Associated Press on Wednesday Wahid had been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit. Buwahyuat like many Indonesians uses one name.

"Gusdur has passed away," she said, referring to Wahid's popular nickname.

The exact cause of death was not immediately released. The former president had suffered from several medical problems in recent years including kidney trouble.

Wahid ruled the country briefly in tumultuous years after the end of the 32-year Suharto dictatorship in 1998. He is known as a champion of democracy and moderate Islam. (The Associated Press, JAKARTA, Indonesia - Published on December 30th, 2009)
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Financial Times.com: Abdurrahman Wahid died on Wednesday aged 69, was often described as “nearly blind” and “frail”, the legacies of two strokes.

Obituary: Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president
By Shawn Donnan

In his later life Abdurrahman Wahid, the former Indonesian president and religious leader who died on Wednesday aged 69, was often described as “nearly blind” and “frail”, the legacies of two strokes.

His critics derided the outspoken, jazz-loving cleric as so eccentric as to be erratic, or berated his tumultuous 1999-2001 presidency as leaving a legacy of missed opportunities to right the historic economic and human rights wrongs of the Suharto regime.

Wahid, who was renowned for his often off-colour jokes, was self-deprecating. He joked that Indonesia’s first president (Sukarno) was crazy for women, its second (Suharto) was crazy for money, its third (BJ Habibie) was plain crazy, and that he, the fourth, just drove people crazy.

But history may be kinder. To his defenders, Wahid, known to most Indonesians by the genial nickname “Gus Dur”, is responsible for helping to solidify the place of the world’s largest Muslim nation as one of its largest democracies following the 1998 overthrow of Suharto.

Greg Barton, the Australian author of Wahid’s 2002 authorised biography, argues that though his presidency was largely ineffectual, by promoting free speech, human rights and apologies for past wrongs Wahid transformed the political agenda.
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“As president he raised [Indonesians’] expectations of what democracy should be,” Mr Barton said on Wednesday. “Even though he left office under a cloud, people’s expectations of what a democratic president – of what a democracy – should deliver were forever altered.”

Wahid was born September 7, 1940, into the Indonesian equivalent of both Islamic and nationalist royalty. His paternal grandfather was one of the founders in 1926 of Nahdlatul Ulama, often dubbed the world’s largest Islamic organisation.

Wahid’s father was a prominent cleric and nationalist who was religious affairs minister after independence in 1948.

On to that heritage Wahid piled an education abroad, with stints at universities in Egypt, Iraq and Canada.

He returned home in the early 1970s and, as expected due to his lineage, rose to head Nahdlatul Ulama in 1984. He was a vocal critic of Suharto, eventually becoming a key figure in the Reformasi movement that led to the autocrat’s 1998 fall, and in the eruption of multi-party politics.

He also challenged the orthodox view of a Muslim leader, arguing that traditional religious practice ought to mix with modernity. He drew raised eyebrows in some circles by travelling to Israel and defending British author Salman Rushdie.

“Those who say that I am not Islamic enough should reread their Koran. Islam is about inclusion, tolerance, community,’’ he once declared.

He was elected by parliament to be Indonesia’s fourth president in October 1999. He struggled to do anything substantial, but travelled widely overseas to promote the idea of a democratic Indonesia. He launched the process of dismantling the Suharto regime’s administrative discrimination against the ethnic Chinese minority.

While his election was initially seen as a politically palatable compromise, his relationship with parliament soured, his domestic agenda stalled, and in July 2001 he was impeached and replaced by Megawati Sukarnoputri, his vice-president.

In his later years he was increasingly treated as a curiosity in Indonesian politics. But somehow, largely through his humour and geniality, he retained much of his moral authority. (FT.com - Published: December 30 2009 15:32 | Last updated: December 30 2009 15:32)

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