David Gee Cheng (1 September 191516 September 2005) was a Chinese-born Indonesian and American engineer and real estate developer who became the Indonesian Deputy Minister for City Planning and Construction from 1964 until 1966.

Early life

Cheng was born in Shanghai on 1 September 1915 from Tsi Fei and Wai Wen (Liang) Cheng. He studied at St. John's University in Shanghai and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1939.

Career

Cheng arrived in Indonesia in 1945 and later became the President of the National Housing Development Corporation in 1956. On 16 September 1959, Cheng applied for naturalization as an Indonesian citizen. His application was accepted by a presidential decree on 23 August 1961. Cheng was appointed by President Sukarno to head the new Department of City Planning and Construction as a deputy minister in the

Dwikora Cabinet The Dwikora Cabinet () was the 23rd Indonesian cabinet. President Sukarno reshuffled the previous cabinet on 27 August 1964 to produce a cabinet better able to implement the government policy he had announced in his Independence Day speech entitl ...

on 27 August 1964. According to minister

Oei Tjoe Tat Oei Tjoe Tat (; 26 April 1922 – 26 May 1996) was a Chinese-Indonesian government official. Born in Surakarta, Central Java, he began his political career after graduating from the Universiteit van Indonesië (now the University of Indonesia) in B ...

, Cheng was appointed by Sukarno after successfully straightening

Hotel Indonesia The Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta is one of the oldest and best-known hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia. Located in Central Jakarta, it was one of the first 5-star hotels in Southeast Asia and remains a major landmark of Jakarta. Its fame is often ...

building foundation In engineering, a foundation is the element of a structure which connects it to the ground or more rarely, water (as with floating structures), transferring loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either sh ...

. Due to his obscurity and the lack of information about him, rumors began to spread about him. ''Fadjar'' magazine said that Cheng was unable to speak Indonesian and has unclear nationality, while journalist Bagja Hidayat claimed that Cheng was a "Hong Kong intel man". During his tenure as minister, Cheng was involved in the construction of the

Semanggi Interchange Semanggi Interchange () or commonly known as Semanggi Bridge () is a major interchange (road), road interchange in Jakarta, Indonesia which consists of a cloverleaf interchange (hence , "clover")—the first, and until the 1990s the only, of its k ...

. Cheng and , the state minister for construction assessment, presented their proposals to President Sukarno. Afterwards, Cheng and Sutami argued with each other about their proposals, with Sukarno observing them. Sukarno later chose Sutami's proposal as a blueprint for the interchange. Cheng retained his post as deputy minister following

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and the only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many ...

subsequent reshuffles of the cabinet. Despite not being a Sukarno loyalist, he was eventually deposed from his post on 21 May 1966 and was replaced by Rachmat Wiradisuria. He was the last Chinese to ever held a cabinet-level post until 1998, when The Kian Seng (

Bob Hasan Mohamad "Bob" Hasan (24 February 1931 – 31 March 2020) was an Indonesian businessman, who served briefly as trade and industry minister in 1998 and was later jailed for corruption. He was one of the most prominent ethnic Chinese cronies of lon ...

) took office as Minister of Trade and Industry in Suharto's short-lived

Seventh Development Cabinet The Seventh Development Cabinet () was the Indonesian cabinet which served under President Suharto and Vice President B. J. Habibie from 16 March 1998 to 21 May 1998. The term of this cabinet was supposed to end in March 2003, but due to student ...

. Cheng left Indonesia for the United States in 1966. He arrived on 18 October 1966 and pursued a postgraduate degree at the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...

. He graduated with a degree in 1967. He later resided in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and became a naturalized US citizen on 26 January 1972. Cheng became a real estate developer in Hawaii. From 1968 to 1970, Cheng became the development director of the Hawaii Council Housing Action (HCHA) in Honolulu. He was involved in the construction of the Waimānalo townhouse community. He later founded the David Gee Cheng Development Corporation in 1971 and became a member of the Transportation Committee in the Oahu Development Conference. Cheng died on 16 June 2005 at the age of 90.

Personal life

Cheng was married and had three children. He was a Roman Catholic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, David Gee 1915 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century Roman Catholics American Roman Catholics Businesspeople from Honolulu Chinese emigrants to Indonesia Chinese emigrants to the United States Government ministers of Indonesia Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian Roman Catholics Real estate and property developers St. John's University, Shanghai alumni