Oei Tjoe Tat (; 26 April 1922 – 26 May 1996) was a

Chinese-Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...

government official. Born in

Surakarta Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoh ...

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...

, he began his political career after graduating from the Universiteit van Indonesië (now the

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia ( id, Universitas Indonesia, abbreviated as UI) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the Dut ...

) in

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residency ...

(Now

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

) in 1948. He was elected vice president of the Chinese Indonesian Democratic Party (PDTI) in 1953, joined the Indonesian Citizenship Consultative Board (BAPERKI) in 1954 and was active in Indonesia Party (Partindo) beginning in 1960. In 1963 he was appointed Minister of State and then he became one of the members of the Cabinet Dwikora 100. In 1965 he was detained by the New Order government of

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

and imprisoned for 10 years without trial until 1976. In 1976 he was charged with involvement in the 30 September Movement of 1965, although the charge was never proven. He was released in 1977. He later authored a memoir entitled ''Memoar Oei Tjoe Tat: Pembantu Presiden Sukarno'' (''Memoirs of Oei Tjoe Tat: Assistant to President Sukarno''), co-edited by Pramoedya A. Toer and Stanley A. Prasetyo. The most critical elements in the book include first-hand testimonies of what happened during the first few months of the 1965 killings in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

and

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and of Suharto's restless behavior during those volatile months, and also testimonies from other eyewitnesses to the events. Some of the most sensitive materials in his book were derived from his position as a member of a fact-finding committee established by President

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

to examine the details and scope of the mass murders from October to December 1965. Oei had spent more than a decade in jail, where he further collected a wealth of first-hand testimonies of the contested history from other inmates. The memoir also addressed the assistance of the American government in the affair, especially in mobilizing student activists during the attacks against the Pro-Beijing government of Sukarno, his supporters, all leftist organizations, and the Chinese-Indonesian minority. A group of former student activists of 1966 who had belonged to the FOSKO 66 (Forum Studi dan Komunikasi, 'Forum of Study and Communication') launched a series of protests against the publication of the memoir, demanding that it be banned and its author tried. On September 25, 1995, the memoir was banned after 12,000 copies had already been sold in the first five months of its circulation. Oei died in Jakarta in 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tat, Oei Tjoe Government ministers of Indonesia Indonesian people of Chinese descent 1922 births 1996 deaths People from Surakarta University of Indonesia alumni