Leading oil figure Julius Tahija dies

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.