A Social Gathering of the Opposition

August 23, 2026 | 01:46 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - News that Oei Tjoe Tat would visit Salatiga, Central Java, in May 1986 reached Stanley Adi Prasetyo. Oei, who had served as a state minister under President Sukarno, was planning to visit the family of his wife, Rika, also known as Kwee Loan Nio, who hailed from that city. To Stanley, then an electrical engineering student at Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Oei’s name meant little because he had long disappeared from the political spotlight. After all, Oei had spent 1966 to 1977 as a political prisoner under the New Order.

Things were different, however, when Stanley mentioned the planned visit to Arief Budiman, a lecturer at the university. Arief, who had an extensive network of contacts, saw Oei’s visit as an opportunity to connect with influential figures. The older brother of activist Soe Hok Gie invited Oei to join a discussion group on campus. Curious, Stanley asked Arief about Oei Tjoe Tat’s background. In response, Arief handed him a bundle of photocopied pages. “That was the memoir he had written for his children and grandchildren,” Stanley recalled at the Tempo office on Thursday, July 2, 2026.

Nine years later, in 1995, those photocopied notes were published as the book Memoar Oei Tjoe Tat: Pembantu Presiden Soekarno (The Memoirs of Oei Tjoe Tat: Assistant to President Sukarno). Stanley edited the book together with Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the acclaimed writer and former New Order political prisoner. The foreword was written by Daniel S. Lev, an Indonesian scholar and political scientist affiliated with the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley. The book was published by Hasta Mitra.

Stanley recalled that by the time Oei arrived at Satya Wacana Christian University, he was already showing symptoms of a stroke. He walked with the aid of a support device while letting his left arm hang limp. Yet, Stanley said, his illness did not stop him from speaking about the Chinese-Indonesian community and life during Sukarno’s presidency. After the discussion, Stanley approached Oei to ask for his address and telephone number. From then on, whenever he traveled to Jakarta for demonstrations or discussions, he made a point of stopping by Oei’s home on Jalan Blitar No. 10 in Menteng, Central Jakarta.

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