Siauw Giok Tjhan (; 23 March 1914 – 20 November 1981) was a

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

activist and politician. Born in Kapasan,

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

East Java East Java (, , ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost third of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern ...

, Indonesia, he was an independent member of the Provisional House of Representatives in the early 1950s. He was briefly detained without charge during the August 1951 mass arrests. He became a cabinet minister under Indonesian president

Sukarno Sukarno (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 the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

and was imprisoned for 12 years by the subsequent president,

Suharto Suharto (8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian Officer (armed forces), military officer and politician, and dictator, who was the second and longest serving president of Indonesia, serving from 1967 to 1998. His 32 years rule, cha ...

for his left-wing beliefs. He was active in rights campaigning and was critical against the assimilation policies enacted towards Chinese Indonesians by Suharto. As a part of

Baperki The Consultative Council for Indonesian Citizenship (), often known by its Indonesian abbreviation Baperki, was an organization founded in Indonesia in 1954 by Indonesians of Chinese descent. It stood in the 1955 Indonesian legislative election, w ...

and the group's leader. He supported the Communist takeover of China, opposed to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and was a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, following his release he moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

where he remained till his death.No Concessions: The Life of Yap Thiam Hien, Indonesian Human Rights Lawyer
by Daniel S. Lev

References

1914 births 1981 deaths Indonesian activists Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian Marxists Members of the House of Representatives (Indonesia), 1950 Members of the House of Representatives (Indonesia), 1955 Political prisoners in Indonesia Indonesian exiles {{DEFAULTSORT:Tjhan, Siauw Giok