Leading oil figure Julius Tahija dies The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Julius Tahija, a leading figure in the country's oil and banking sector, died on Tuesday morning at the MMC Kuningan hospital at the age of 86.
Julius will be buried on Thursday in the family plot in Tugu, Puncak district, West Java, adjacent to his Australian wife Jean, who died in June last year, according to his youngest son Sjakon G. Tahija.
Sjakon told The Jakarta Post that his father had been receiving medical treatment for a month before passing away.
"Since mom died a year ago, he appeared to have lost the will to live and was often sick. Before his death, he told us he wanted to see mom," Sjakon said.
Several noted figures, including state oil and gas company Pertamina's president Baihaki Hakim and former minister Emil Salim paid homage to the deceased on Tuesday morning.
Julius was survived by Sjakon, who followed in the footsteps of his mother by becoming a doctor, and eldest son George S. Tahija, who took after his father by becoming a businessman. George is now the president of mining firm PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya, which holds several mining concessions in the country.
In the first years of his adulthood, Julius was involved in politics and military activities, and made a name for himself in both. For his bravery in the fight against the Japanese during World War II, he was granted a top Dutch military honor, and he served as a minister in the East Indonesia federal state after Indonesia gained independence in 1945.
But, Indonesia remembers him not because of his political and military career, but his achievements in business.
In 1951, Julius quit politics and joined American oil and gas company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia. He became the first Indonesian to lead a multinational company operating here when the country's largest oil producer appointed him chairman of the board of the directors in 1966.
He is also known as the former majority shareholder of Bank Niaga, which was one of the country's best run banks when the Tahija family sold their stake to the Sumitro Djojohadikusumo family before the economic crisis in 1997.
Above all, Julius gained respect from many parties for his low profile and integrity in doing business, which was in contrast to the many tycoons who dominated the country's economy during the Soeharto era. While many businessmen then sought to profit from their connections with the palace and aggressively expand their businesses, Julius maintained his focus on the banking sector, and continued to prudently manage Bank Niaga.
While all the politically-linked conglomerates collapsed in the wake of the economic crisis, the business of the Tahijas is among the few large businesses from the Soeharto era that has been able to survive and even continue to prosper.
Julius, who was born in Surabaya, East Java, to an Ambonese family confessed in his English biography "Horizon Beyond", published in 1995, that he had loved business from childhood, and had learned much from a childhood friend of Chinese descent.
On many occasions, he voiced admiration for the Chinese way of doing business.
"The main assets of the Chinese are loyalty and togetherness. These feelings go beyond family ties. Once you gain their trust, they will help and support you on all occasions. Once you cheat on them, you'll never regain their trust. You'll become an outcast," Julius said in an interview with the Kompas daily in 1995.