JAKARTA - Indonesia's ailing former President Suharto has pneumonia and is developing a blood infection which could lead to blood poisoning, causing a further deterioration in his health, his doctors said on Tuesday.
Doctors have been battling to save the 86-year-old former strongman, who ruled the vast Southeast Asian nation for more than three decades.
Suharto was rushed to hospital on January 4 suffering from heart, lung and kidney problems, and was put on a ventilator on Friday after suffering multiple organ failure.
"His consciousness has declined. Heart, lung and digestive functions are all declining," said Mardjo Soebiandono, the head of the medical team treating Suharto, adding that there was no prospect of taking Suharto off the ventilator yet.
Suharto's rule was marked by rapid economic growth and political stability, but also saw the country experience massacres, human rights abuses, and endemic corruption.
With the former general now in critical condition, there has been a lively debate over his legacy and whether to push ahead with legal proceedings against him for graft.
Many ordinary Indonesians have been transfixed by the swings in Suharto's health over the past week, while the letters column of the Jakarta Post has been filled with angry letters from people saying the former ruler should be tried.
"The public, like me, have wondered all along how these faults can be concealed so nicely and how he is still free today despite all the wrong and the sufferings countless people have endured," wrote Khristianto from Central Java.
"Is he really innocent?"
PAYING RESPECTS
