RIZAL Mallarangeng had no choice but to stay in hospital last week. The doctors presented him with a gift of two rings in his aorta, 80 percent of which had clogged up. "If I hadn't deliberately had it checked, I probably wouldn't be here talking to you," said the spokesperson for the government's negotiating team with ExxonMobil, laughingly.

Still, immediately upon discharge on Friday, the man with the doctorate in political scie