Taufiq Kiemas

SINGAPORE (AP) - Indonesian lawmaker Taufiq Kiemas, the husband of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, died Saturday evening in Singapore. He was 70.

The speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Kiemas died at a Singapore hospital, said Djoko Suyanto, coordinating minister for political security, from Jakarta.

Fellow politicians said Kiemas suffered fatigue after a business trip to eastern Indonesia last week and his health had deteriorated since then. He also had a history of heart problems, but the cause of death was not immediately known.

In Singapore, his daughter was seen in an Indonesian embassy vehicle leaving the morgue.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his condolences at a news conference in Jakarta late Saturday and said he will lead a funeral Sunday in the capital, Jakarta. He ordered the national flag to be flown at half-staff at all government offices for two days.

The government will also send two aircraft to Singapore to fly the body and the family to Jakarta on Sunday morning.

Megawati became president in 2001 and later constitutional changes were seen as a step toward democracy. Yudhoyono was elected in the country's first direct presidential elections in 2004, unseating runner-up Megawati, who is the daughter of Indonesia's first President Sukarno following Dutch colonial rule.

Kiemas had most recently been leader of the Muslim religious wing of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. Megawati is its general chairman.

In 2009, he was elected for a five-year term as speaker of the assembly, which is made up of 550 members of the Parliament and 132 senators representing the country's 33 provinces.


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