Jakarta – Golkar Party has said its chairman, Setya Novanto, is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Jakarta and that a picture of him in a hospital bed is not staged.
Nurdin Halid, the senior member of the party's central board, said the picture was taken at Premier Hospital in Jatinegara, East Jakarta. "I also have the picture and he is indeed sick," Nurdin said, according to tempo.co.
When the picture first circulated earlier this week, social media users, particularly on Twitter, said that they could see a number of oddities in how Setya posed for the shot.
Some pointed that although Setya closed both his eyes and could be seen sleeping, he was half-seated, which led many to believe that he did not actually doze off.
More people, however, focused on the electrocardiogram machine which showed a flat-line. The electrocardiogram measures Setya heartbeat's. A flat-line position indicates that a patient has vital signs or is already dead.
Responding to the allegation, Nurdin said: "That's just your interpretation. You can comment on anything,"
The picture prompted social media users to engage in a photoshop battle. One social media user put a scene from the popular Japanese cartoon show, Dragon Ball Z, on the electrocardiogram screen to hilarious effect.
Another Twitter user altered Setya's respiratory aid with the mask used by Bane, the villain in the movie The Dark Knight before photoshopping Batman onto the image.