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span class="inline inline-left">JPUncle Liem passed away on Sunday, June 10, 2012. He was a good man — humble, generous, always helpful to others, concerned about the future of Indonesia and its development, and loyal to friends and colleagues. He never forgot the help and support he received, however small. He was not only financially generous to the little people who helped him, but he always made an effort to be present at their family occasions like weddings and funerals. He also provided support to many retirees in their pursuit of second jobs.

He has always been pro-Indonesia, although he never forgot that he was of Chinese origin and was born in China. He knew his bread was buttered in Indonesia and he adopted it as his new “motherland”. More than that, he got his luck in Indonesia and became the greatest among Indonesian entrepreneurs. Of course, he received help from President Soeharto like other tycoons did — the “robber barons” of their time. But it has been widely acknowledged that Uncle Liem managed to turn all those given facilities and privileges into real economic and business entities and corporations that not only survived the Soeharto regime change, but even thrived and developed regionally and globally.

His relationship with Pak Harto grew intensely when Pak Harto was the Acting President in 1967. Indonesia was bankrupt then and there was no money in the treasury to pay salaries and run the government. So Uncle Liem lent the necessary funds. That was the time when I first met him. He was like an uncle to me because we clicked from the outset. Uncle Liem became the “informal” but “de facto” leader of the Indonesian Chinese business community, and as such he was the “interlocutor” to President Soeharto for this community.

Being an interlocutor was not easy for Uncle Liem, because on the one hand Indonesian Chinese were protected, but on the other he never got Soeharto’s full interest and protection for them. Soeharto never fulfilled his promise to give Indonesian Chinese an equal opportunity in all walks of life and recognition as full-fledged Indonesians.

The status was to a certain extent achieved after the ouster of President Soeharto in 1998 with the anti-Chinese riots as part of the opposition toward Soeharto. Many business leaders left in 1998 and 1999 and the Indonesian economy plunged dramatically into double digits minus, among other things because the critical part of the economic network stopped. Thereafter, through the calamitous and cathartic events which Uncle Liem also endured, the Indonesian Chinese become more accepted and their role in the economy has been more appreciated.

As I see it, Uncle Liem’s greatest achievement was his willingness to lead a group of conglomerates, with, among others William Soerjadjaja and Eka Widjaja, to found the Prasetiya Mulya Management School in 1982 that opened up opportunities for both indigenous residents and Chinese Indonesians to study together. In 30 years the school flourished, and now offers undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programs in business management.

It has produced almost 4,000 MBAs and every year it produces the best MBAs in the country. Prasetiya Mulya is not just a school but has become a melting pot for its students, and its “old boy” network has helped to create solid business partnerships among its graduates of various ethnic and regional backgrounds. That is the monument Uncle Liem and his colleagues built that we will always cherish, maintain, support and develop in his and their memories.

He was a giant with a big heart: humble and generous. May his family get consolation, especially from his extraordinary character, and may they keep up with all the good deeds that Uncle Liem pioneered.

The author is vice chair of the board of trustees of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Foundation, Jakarta.