Photo: My parent’s wedding picture taken in the Polonia home.
After my father passed away, my mother has been trying to inherit this house in Polonia which is registered under my father’s name. As I mentioned before, my father kept all of his legal documents in the office, including certificates of his properties and his personal legal documents. Sukanto refused to return all of them to my family, even my parent’s marriage certificate.
To many people, this is nothing to worry about. If your certificate is stolen or lost, you can always re-apply it as long as you are the lawful representation and go through the proper procedures.
According to Indonesian laws, after a married man passed away, his spouse would become his legal representation of his estate. That is why my uncle started to pour lots of pressure on my mother by attacking my mother’s characters, threatening our family’s safety and pressing my mother to sign unfair/ illegitimate legal documents after my father passed away.
1st Attempt (1998-1999)
At first, my mother went straight to the land office in Medan and tried to apply for a new house certificate as the legal heir of my father. All went smoothly at the beginning but she was denied at the last moment. The head of the Medan land office pulled my mother aside and told her that there is a note attached on the Polonia’s property that said nothing can be done to this property unless the applicant gets the permission from Sukanto Tanoto.
Confused. Why would my mother need to get permission to reapply for a certificate from a third party when the property is solely owned by my father?
My mother was put in contact with Linda Herawati, a legal adviser who is very close to Sukanto Tanoto. Linda then presented a document to ask my mother to sign. Basically, the deal is that my mother would get the house certificate if she agree to transfer all my father’s shares to my uncle for free.
Okay. He knows nobody in the world would take this deal but he is betting that he has put enough pressures on my mother and she is going to take it.
It’s absurd. My mother refused to sign it.
2nd Attempt (2002)
A couple years later, my mother decided to try again, hoping that the note attached on the Polonia property had been removed. She hired a notary, Jasmin to represent her and re-apply for the house deed. This time she was informed that there is huge tax bill attached on the property. My mother has to clear the tax bill that occurred in 1992 with the amount of USD304,319 (Rp.3,534,060,449). When Jasmin inquired about the details of the tax bill, the officer told her to speak with Sukanto’s notary, Linda Herawati.
The tax bill did not appear on the Polonia property in 1998. Why would it suddenly appear in 2002?
Confused again. Why does the tax bill has anything to do with Linda?
3rd Attempt (2007)
Finally, my mother called and demanded Linda Herawati to return the house certificate of Polonia and asked her about the tax bill. Linda said that she knows about the tax bill and would love to help and arrange something to resolve the matter if my mom would agree on a couple issues.
A few weeks later, Linda passed a document to my mother, saying that the company would return the Polonia’s house deed to my mother after she transfer the Jalan Sudirman office property (owned by my father) to the company at no cost.
The document states that after signing, my mother would admit that she has received x amount of money (they left it blank) from PT Asia Forestama Raya and agreed to transfer the property to them. They wanted my mother to pretend that she received money from selling the property but in fact she would not.
As a matter of fact, the only thing she is going to get for signing that piece of document is the house deed of Polonia.
My mother refused to sign it.
Of course, how can she agrees to legalize Sukanto’s crime?
During that time, my mother had been followed by private investigators, put in jail by my uncle once and received death threats.
Photo: The Polonia house
Put it in short, Sukanto wants my mother to give up my father’s shares and properties to him at no cost, so he used his influence in the government to attach a huge tax bill on our house in Polonia and block my mother from reapplying it. We must go through him to get everything that belong to my father.
Until today, my family still cannot inherit the Polonia property and Jalan Sudirman property even though they are rightfully ours.
There are people currently occupying the office in Jalan Sudirman No.10. But we don’t know who they are and how they are able to access that property.
As I continued to see people use extreme methods to protest against Sukanto’s companies, I thought I should not stay silent anymore. This is the right time for me to share how Sukanto is capable of removing even the basic rights Indonesian constitution gives to every citizen since 1945.
People in other countries cannot believe this kind of thing can actually happen. ” How can your uncle possibly get hold of your father’s assets? ” They say.
I hope my story can demonstrate and give clarity to Sukanto’s criminals’ pattern and serve as an example of how he could possibly use similar methods to take away others’ properties.
Now, Sukanto’s owned Woodfibre is planning to build a LNG facility in Squamish, BC. They are using a method of natural gas extraction called Fracking that will destroy the environment and effect the citizens’ health. A group of Squamish citizens are concerned of Sukanto Tanoto’s track records in Indonesia and the environment impacts this LNG project will bring.
Source: FeaturedPixels
If you also cannot agree with Sukanto’s actions, please sign up for this petition to ask BC Premier, Christy Clark to stop Sukanto’s proposed Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish, BC. :
If nobody stand up to him, Sukanto will think he can continue doing what he thinks that works.
We don’t want the same thing to happen in the future.
Indonesians are wise. We will not let him use the money he made by ripping off innocent families and villagers to expand his business in other countries.
Canadians are wise. They will not welcome a businessman that take part in corruption and abusing human rights.
How could I sign this petition?
Have you tried change.org
Hi Lidia,
Please go to the following link to sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/wharton-school-university-of-pennsylvania-stop-awarding-medal-to-and-receiving-donation-from-sukanto-tanoto-2
1. Find the Sign Up Form on the right.
2. Fill in your first and last name, email, city you currently live and the reason you support the petition (optional), then click “Sign”. Done.
Thank you for supporting the petition.
In Medan, everything could happened especially during the time when the old regime (orde baru) is still in power, moreover if you have close connection with the Cendana’s family. Sukanto is well known to be close with the late president Soeharto.
Instead of just using blog to expose those issues, you should utilize other media (online news, well known national magazine such as Tempo, etc) who are willing to collaborate with you. During these times in Indonesia, people are practicing democracy in the most extreme ways since it is still in the transition process of shifting from dictatorship to a balanced democracy.
So, you have already in the right path, effective but still inefficient. You should use any other type of medias to disclose and expose your uncle unethical exploit.
If possible, if you still have all the relevant documents that could secure and strenghten your position against your uncle, you should look for experienced attorneys with good track record who is/are willing to collaborate with you in winning this case. There are some attorneys in Indonesia who have the wealth but they tend to go for fame, you could offer them a proposal where you as the plaintiff provide all the necessary documents while the attorney as your partner provides you legal advice and especially fund (you need it as an incentive in legal politics in Indonesia) to ‘smoothen’ the litigation process; for those corrupted officials. Well, sadly, this is Indonesia.
Your partner (attorney) will have the right to a certain percentage (depends on your negotiation with the attorney) of the secured assets or money when the case is won. Make sure to propose your partner to involve a well known and experienced notary to secure and legalize your agreement with your partner before any further step (litigation, etc) is taken. Worst case, they will decline your offer but in exchange you will acquire more detailed knowledge of your situation and position as the attorney will explain to you your weaknesses.
There is no such thing as almighty, invincible and powerful businessman who cannot be taken down for his wrong deeds in this world when you have the people behind you, especially at this time in Indonesia. So, public opinion is a very important factor in winning this case and how you utilize it matters the most. The more prominent and wealthy your uncle is, the more effective it is. With the right touch from your legal advisor, hopefully the litigation process may simply come down to non-litigation and your uncle may just willing to cooperate with you where in a certain point of this case exposure to public knowledge, he would calculate and compare between the loss of his reputation (including confidence of his business partners) and his apathetic perspective and attitude towards this case and your family, where it is very possible he will respond by making an acceptable offer for you in exchange for his already eroding reputation.
Lastly, yes, there is still a possibility for your partner to be ‘bought’ and go to your uncle’s side during the process. Make sure you do not hand over your documents before a written and legal agreement is made between you, and there must be a clause that regulates how the documents should be utilized by the attorney to at least reduce the motivation (impossible to prevent, except caught red handed or proven) to information selling. But the tendency for an attorney to switch side (putting aside their own ethical code) should be low if your position (documents, evidences) is ‘strong’, except otherwise. It would be better if there are 2 (two) attorneys to collaborate so they can keep in check with and balance each other.
Dear Chris,
Thank you so much for your long reply.
I’ve heard your advices, and would keep them in mind.
There are many forms of justices. The goal of this blog is to reveal the tactics Sukanto employed in taking away my father’s assets from us. As I started writing, I realized Sukanto has used so many tactics on a family who just lost their father and husband. I’m still in a process of writing all of them.
Many years ago, my mother tried really hard to get justice in Indonesia legal system but she failed because Sukanto bribed the officials and dragged the case. At that time, she didn’t know there’s an under table rule she has to follow.
I hope everyone who read this blog can learn from our experiences and let our case be the last.
Well, wendy, as fellow medanese, your gratitude was more than necessary :)
To be frank, most medanese (from old to young) must have already heard ‘rumor’ of Sukanto’s perspective in morality and business ethics. One of them is in 1990’s, when Sukanto was still in his old office building in Medan (the green one if I’m not mistaken), he once expressed his rage towards one of his executives (director) by throwing (literally) a telephone to his face. And the director resigned at once and later became one of the top executives in one of Indonesia’s prominent business groups.
And the ‘rumor’ where I heard how in the mourning of his brother’s very recent accident, Sukanto inappropriately discussed about business with his fellow guests (whoever they were) during meal.
Well, if those rumors are true, that definitely summarized his priority of wealth and family.
And heard of Tanoto’s Foundation and the scholarship program?? Very impressive indeed…
Many years ago vs Now ; media is at its peak. Please continue to fight for your rights! this time using all the media channels to make it viral on its own. Its despicable what he did! unjust, unfair and really…
Oh man… Why he donated so much money in the States and China and treated Indonesians so badly? What’s wrong with this Sukanto guy? Cut our rainforest, corrupt our legal system and evade tax in Indonesia. This guy got any problem with Indonesians?
Indonesians are too nice and naive. He gets away easily every time. The more crimes he commits the richer he gets. WTH!?
In fact, every country is falling for money. Sukanto’s company in Riau has caused the haze in Singapore. Let’s see what SG govt will do to Sukanto and RAPP.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/03/03/singapore-ri-new-haze-row.html
Dear Konst,
Thanks for sharing the news link.
I happened to be in Singapore when the haze occurred. The situation was very intense. The masks that are really working are completely out of stock in every pharmacy and hospital. Many people left the country during that time. A lot of kids and babies are also breathing the polluted air, which is very damaging to their health.
I can totally understand why Singaporeans have to take serious steps to stop him.
Since I was a kid, I hated bullies. Now I’m witnessing the ultimate of the species, and it seems that the 5th Richest Man in Singapore is part of it.
Who does these kind of things to woman and children?
Did you say that Sukanto Tanoto is your “uncle”?
Ignoring the bullied and oppressed is something that only happened in the past. Everybody here is watching what is happening.
Thanks MHO. Your awareness is the best support to people who face similar circumstances as ours. His actions have to stop now and should not happen to the next generations.