Robert Go, Jakarta – Questions over President Abdurrahman Wahid's health swept through Jakarta yesterday as two separate medical teams issued contradictory opinions on his fitness to remain at Indonesia's helm.

Parliament Speaker Akbar Tandjung first revealed that four specialists had sent Parliament a letter containing the view that the President is permanently disabled and is medically unfit.

Copies of the letter have been circulating among legislators and according to Mr Akbar, the four doctors – a neurologist, an optical specialist, a general physician and a psychiatrist – would present their report to Parliament directly on Monday, the last day before MPs take a three-week recess.

Mr Akbar has also told reporters that the four physicians are not "Parliament's doctors" whose medical opinions reflect the MPs' lines of thinking.

Mr Abdurrahman has suffered two strokes – in 1996 and 1998 – and is nearly blind. He cannot walk without assistance and is prone to dozing off during Cabinet meetings and official state functions.

Legislators, who have been gunning for the President's removal from office since early last year, have previously suggested that Mr Abdurrahman's frail health affects his ability to govern and that he should step down in favor of Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

But Dr Umar Wahid, Mr Abdurrahman's brother and chief of the President's 40-member medical team, rejected the four physicians' opinions yesterday.

He also told The Straits Times that the leader, who was on a working trip to Ponorogo in East Java yesterday, was in better medical shape compared to two or three years ago.

Dr Umar said: "The President is well. There is no need whatsoever to be concerned over his health. I have been his personal physician for the last 20 years. His condition is better now compared to perhaps the last few years."

He also said that the four physicians cited by Mr Akbar did not belong to the President's official medical team and had never personally examined Mr Abdurrahman.

"I don't know those four doctors. They have never examined the President," said Dr Umar. "Announcing a medical opinion in this manner, without having personally observed the patient, is irresponsible," he said.

While declining to comment on Mr Abdurrahman's specific illnesses, presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar also said that the 60-year-old leader seemed fit enough to stay on the job. "Better ask the doctors about his medical condition. But make sure you ask the correct doctors," he said in his usual jocular style.