Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono (JP)

Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono, founder of diversified conglomerate Sahid Group and chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Trade (Kadin) during the Soeharto era, died on Thursday of natural causes. He was 89.

Sukamdani was laid to rest at the Sahid Modern Islamic Boarding School compound in Bogor, West Java, which he built in 2000.

Prior to his burial, Vice President Jusuf Kalla paid tribute to him at the funeral home, according to Antara news agency.

Sukamdani opened his first business, a small-scale publishing company, in 1952 in his hometown of Surakarta, Central Java.

Prior to that, he was a low-level civil servant in Sukoharjo, near Surakarta.

The publishing company flourished and a year later he established the Sahid Group, which is now widely known for its hotels, but operates a range of businesses, including property, media outlets such as Jakarta-based Bisnis Indonesia newspaper and education.

In an interview with Kompas in 2013, Sukamdani said he first got the idea to build a hotel when he was stranded in Medan, North Sumatra, in 1960 due to limited flights available at the time.

“I spent a lot of time in a hotel. From that occasion, I thought that a hotel business was needed in a country that had recently declared its independence,”
Sukamdani said.

The group currently operates and manages 26 hotels, offering 3,824 rooms in cities across the country; all are managed by publicly listed PT Hotel Sahid Jaya International (SHID).

Sukamdani also chaired Kadin for two terms from 1982 to 1988.

According to Sofjan Wanandi, a member of Kalla’s expert staff, Sukamdani’s biggest contribution to the Indonesian economy during that period was encouraging the private sector to play a part in developing the country, and helping Indonesia establish trade ties with China.

In the same Kompas interview, Sukamdani explained his main principle of business by saying it was meant to create opportunities for others, so that people could enjoy “having houses and pursuing an education.”

In addition to the Islamic boarding school in Bogor, Sukamdani also founded a number of educational institutions, such as Sahid University in Jakarta and Surakarta, the Sahid Institute of Tourism in Banten and the Sahid School of Tourism Management in Bali.

He is survived by his wife and five children.

One of his children, Hariyadi Sukamdani, is chairman of the Association of Indonesian Employers (Apindo), a powerful lobbying group.

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