Open Letter to Sukanto Tanoto by Katherine Tanoto

My name is Katherine Tanoto. I am the youngest child of Polar Yanto Tanoto and the niece of Sukanto Tanoto.

When I was four, I lost my father in an air crash. Since then, my uncle, Sukanto has been harassing my family.

Photo: My father held me in his arms in Exchange Club, Medan in Indonesia.

Since I was young, my only memory about my father is that he was usually not at home due to countless business trips. My mother always told me that we should get used to his absence because my father was managing a lot of companies and factories at once. I love the time when he was home because he would bring all of us to trips, play with me, or bring me to a walk. I can vividly remember when my father brought me to visit the construction site of our Amirhamzah house when it was almost done. He would hold me in his arm while explaining to the engineers how to pay extra care on certain materials or a certain design of the house. I love how he would hold me so I could see what he sees.

When Amirhamzah was done, my father was very happy. He devoted a lot of time into the project – from buying the land to choosing the materials for every single piece of the house –it is built with his love and care toward his family. Our family was nice and safe in there.

However, after our father passed away, I could never live in that house anymore. I could felt that we somehow became Sukanto’s target and that everything my father owns including the house, which is my father’s devotion, his treasure, was completely ruined by Sukanto’s personal greed.

Photo: Christmas trip to Canada.

When my mother was forced to move our family to Singapore, we moved to a much smaller apartment. I think from that point on, even as a 4-year-old kid, could feel that things were different. For example, I never see my uncle again after the funeral (the first time I see him after the funeral was indeed about 8 years later). One day, the landlord came to our apartment at 7pm. My mother told us to stay in the room. I was not sure what happened but I heard my mother kept apologizing to the landlord. The landlord was a nice person. He said “just make sure you pay” and then left. I was very confused at that time because just a few months ago, our family was able to live in Amirhamzah and even went back to our old house, Polonia freely, but why all of the sudden we must stay in a much smaller apartment that did not even belong to us. If we have 2 houses in Indonesia, isn’t that moving back to our houses is the best way for everyone?

Not until later I found out that at that time, my mother was indeed under pressure and threats from Sukanto about signing documents. Because my mother refused to sign unfair legal documents to give up our father’s assets to him, he blocked my mother’s access to her own bank account, stopped her from inheriting my father’s assets, threatened her not to return to Indonesia, and delayed the living expense payment (after taking away everything from us, he decided to pay for my family allowances which were never enough and always delayed in order to control my family’s finance), which caused a lot of mental pressure to my mother.

I could not remember how many months later. One day, my mother told us that she decided to move to Taiwan.

“You can see your favorite cousins again, we would be happier,” she said.

Then we started packing, and quickly moved to a very small hotel. My mother made a lot of calls during that time, and then, even from a child’s point of view, I felt that we were fleeing from something.

I remember that when we arrived Taiwan, there was definitely a feeling of ease. As though we are safe from something. However, this is not the end of Sukanto’s harassment. My mother went back to Indonesia and tried to get her justice. It was when the most horrifying experience in my childhood happened – Sukanto detained my mother in Indonesia.

I was the closest to my mother because I was the youngest kid so I got to spend more time with my mother at home. All of my siblings, knowing our family situation, tried to give my mother as little burden as possible. But it was hard for a 5-year-old to do so. My mother brought me to almost everywhere she went because I always wanted to know and participate what she was doing. After my father passed away, I had a very insecure feeling due to the continuous change of environment.

One day, my mother told me that she’s going to Indonesia and would be back in a couple days. On the day she was scheduled to arrive home at noon, I waited at the balcony after school so I could be the first one welcoming her. However, even when the sky began to darken, I still did not see any sign of my mother coming back. Since I was waiting in the balcony for too long, my sister, Wendy, offered to take turns with me. We took turn every hour, but even past dinnertime, my mother was still not back. No one knew what is the reason for the delay.

Finally, at 10pm, Wendy shouted, “mom is back! Mom is back!” I was so happy, and my grandmother quickly reheated the meal for my mother. Then my mother told us that she was detained in the Jakarta Police Department. But she told us “nothing to worry, if police wrongly detained you, they would quickly free you because justice is always on your side if you did not do anything wrong.” She described that experience so lightly, but not until later I realized that she had skipped so many parts behind that story – including how my uncle continued pressing her to sign documents, how he could easily get police on his side, and how he threatened my mother that not only her, if he wants, he can detain her family – her mother, siblings, and us in Indonesia.

Photo: Gangster like people that followed my sisters for their whole trip in Singapore.

We all knew that Sukanto would hire people to follow us. However, I was truly frightened when I heard that my sisters were followed aggressively in Singapore again in June 2014. I felt that the fact that those gangster like people did not even feel the need to hide themselves was a sign, showing how Sukanto is willing to put us in dangers in order to satisfy his greed.

Sukanto always tells the world that this is a family matter, and that a family matter should be resolved within the family. However, this is just an excuse he made to make sure that he could continue to oppress our family without anyone stopping him.

Photo: Family gathering on Grandfather’s birthday celebration.

However, his greed has already gotten to another level: few days ago I learned that Sukanto jailed a group of villagers and activists in North Sumatra who were fighting for their lands. Some of them even sew their mouth to protest for the unfair treatment they received from the government, which was under Sukanto’s pressure. However, Sukanto’s greed has blinded his eyes. Once again, he found a couple excuses to justify his crimes. Just when the whole South East Asia is choking in the haze that he caused, he enjoys all the money that he secretly embezzled them to the tax haven. He also invaded the independence of the Indonesian media and pressured Bisnis.com to replace my family’s news to article praising Tanoto Foundation so that all the things he had done would not be published.

What do I want? Maybe I was just purely angry about how Sukanto oppressed his brother and business partner’s family after he passed away. Or maybe because I just do not know why my mother had to suffer so much after losing her husband. Or perhaps I cannot stand that my sisters’ trip to Singapore was again ruined by the gangsters he hired. It just seems to me he has devoted all his life into pushing our family into misery for a reason that I do not quite know.

But eventually, I realized I am not the only victim of Sukanto Tanoto’s threats. There are innocent villagers being jailed and kids being choked in the haze because of his greed. I want people to know that the Sukanto Tanoto is a liar and a traitor. Tanoto Foundation is just a PR effort to create a fake image that he never owns. The last thing I know is that someone needs to stand up and stop Sukanto Tanoto from exploiting his power to hurt other family.

His eyes are blinded by money.