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Obituary: Aristides Katoppo, an inspiration to young journalists, dies at 81
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Aristides Katoppo in an interview in Malang, East Java, on Sept. 21 this year.
(Kompas/com/Kristianto Purnomo)
S
enior journalist and former chief editor of Sinar Harapan daily Aristides “Tides” Katoppo passed away at 12:05 p.m. on Sunday at Abdi Waluyo Hospital in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
Tides’ son, Jura Katoppo, said the senior journalist was being treated at the hospital prior to his death for pains that spread from his left leg to the whole of his body. Jura added Tides had heart trouble for the past several years, as reported by kompas.com.
Shobi Lawalata, a learning facilitator at United in Diversity, which was cofounded by Aristides, told The Jakarta Post that Tides’ wife Sasmiyarsi “Mimis” Sasmoyo told her the senior journalist might have been exhausted after attending the 50th anniversary of the death of Soe Hok Gie on Mount Semeru, East Java. Tides was one of Gie’s close friends in the 1960s.
Aristides’ body is currently lying in repose in Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Jakarta, the cremation will take place on Tuesday afternoon at Oasis Lestari, Tangerang.
Born in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, on March 14, 1938, Tides’ name rose to prominence in international journalism in the 1960s, when his exclusive reports headlined leading newspapers such as Indonesia’s afternoon newspaper Sinar Harapan and The New York Times.
In one of his articles, Tides covered the January 1964 visit of then US attorney general Robert Kennedy to meet president Sukarno in Jakarta who bore a letter on the issue of Irian Jaya from his late brother John F Kennedy.
Although Kennedy was accompanied by an entourage of US journalists, Tides was the only journalist who was given access to the letter.
