The minister, who was stabbed during a working visit on Thursday last week to Pandeglang, Banten, had to have an operation at the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital (RSPAD) in Central Jakarta, during which a roughly 40-centimeter part of his small intestines was removed, his aides said.

Abdi Setiawan Effendy, Wiranto’s son-in-law, said the minister had been moved from the RSPAD’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) to an inpatient room and was still receiving intensive treatment, even though his condition had shown improvement since his operation last week.

The chief security minister has been receiving endless visits from his friends and colleagues, including fellow ministers in President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Cabinet, ever since he was admitted to the RSPAD, an expert staff member at the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, Agus Zaini, said.

Among them was Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, who paid a visit to Wiranto on Tuesday.

Arief said Wiranto had been able to engage in conversation with people and that the retired military general had also been detached from medical devices that he had been attached to when he was still in the ICU.

“Thank God, he’s fine. When I was there, he talked about how Indonesia’s tourism had improved a lot. He said, ‘Our tourism is great, I watched it on the television.’ Then we talked about Gorontalo where he used to be deployed during his service as military officer,” Arief said.

Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita also went to the RSPAD on Monday.

Although he did not meet Wiranto in person because the latter was sleeping when Enggar came, he could see that Wiranto was already able to lie on his side.

“According to the hospital management, Wiranto’s health keeps getting better and he still needs time for the recovery process. I saw him sleeping on his side,” Enggartiasto said as quoted by kompas.com.

Even better, former Jakarta governor and fellow retired military general Sutiyoso said Wiranto was already able to walk. During his visit, Sutiyoso said that not only could Wiranto now talk, he even told the occasional joke.

“I’m pretty sure he will recover soon. I asked him earlier, ‘can you walk now?’ to which he replied, ‘yes, three steps.’ Tomorrow four [steps], the day after tomorrow five [steps]. There’s no need to worry,” Sutiyoso said.

Health Minister Nila Djuwita Moeloek, however, said Wiranto still needed more time to fully recover. She could not yet say when Wiranto would be released and be allowed to go home.

“He is fine, everything seems good. It has been days since the operation. There are steps that Pak Wiranto should go through before he can move normally,” Nila said.

Wiranto received two stab wounds to his lower stomach after a man — who was later arrested and identified as an alleged member of Islamic State-linked homegrown terror group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) — suddenly attacked him with a sharp weapon in broad daylight during his working visit to Pandeglang.

After receiving emergency treatment at Berkah Pandeglang General Hospital, he was then transported by helicopter under the instruction of President Jokowi to the RSPAD.

Since Thursday, state officials, security top brass and political bigwigs including Jokowi, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Budi Gunawan and former chief security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, have poured in to visit Wiranto at the hospital.

Abdi did not give a direct answer when asked when his father-in-law would be discharged from the hospital, as he only smiled and said, “Please ask the doctor,” before leaving the journalists. (vla)

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