THE couple looked at each other when the Tempo reporter made his way into their room, No. 7 on the third floor of the Catur Prasetya Building, Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, last Thursday.

The husband was lying on a divan, weak, his round face pale. He was wearing a grey sweater, while a red blanket was partially draped over his body. An oxygen cylinder stood upright beside the bed. The wife, in glasses, was wearing a whi