Piecing Akidy’s Traces Together

KOMPAS/JOHANES GALUH BIMANTARA

South Sumatra Regional Police Chief Inspector General Eko Indra Heri received assistance for handling Covid-19 worth Rp 2 billion in goods from the United Palembang Chinese Community, Friday (6/8/2021), at the South Sumatra Police Headquarters, Palembang City. Oxygen supply is one form of assistance.

The late Akidy was known as being engaged in various kinds of business. However, an examination by the Financial Transactions Reporting and Analysis Center (PPATK) of his family accounts has concluded that the family’s total funds are far from Rp 2 trillion.

PALEMBANG, KOMPAS — Over the last week, Kompas has explored the traces of Akidy in Langsa, Aceh and Palembang, South Sumatra. From his gravestone in Talang Kerikil Public Cemetery, Palembang, it is known that Akidy was born on 13 May 1920. His ancestors came from Haifeng, Guangdong Province, China.

From the same gravestone, Akidy is known to have had eight children, five males and three females. Heryanty, who symbolically transferred a Rp 2 trillion donation to South Sumatra Regional Police chief Insp. Gen. Eko Indra Heri on 26 July, is the youngest child of Akidy. So far, the donation cannot yet be disbursed.

Prior to 1976, Akidy and his children started a business in Langsa. Akidy had once grown vegetables and become an overseeing supplier of workers for the opening of land owned by the state estate company PT Perkebunan Nusantara I (PTPN I). His eldest son, Chang Pao Fu, aka Ahok, opened a lemonade home industry on Jl. Nasional. Akidy had once also lived there.

Also read:

> Managing the Village, Mitigating the Pandemic

> Resilience and Recovery in Sitirejo

> Stimulus to Lift the Economy

One of the residents living near the lemonade factory, R, 52, said his father and Akidy had in the past reclaimed the land of PTPN I in several regions in Aceh. Akidy reclaimed forest land before it was planted with oil palm or rubber. “Akidy was a kind of contractor in the reclamation. My father was once also reclaiming land along with Akidy,” said R.

Akidy’s second son, Chang Pao Lu, owned a motorcycle workshop on Jl. Teuku Umar. The former workshop has now turned into a three-story shophouse and storehouse. It used to be only a wooden building.

Ayung, 76, a gold shop owner on Jl. Teuku Umar, said when Akidy was living in Langsa, he was not much familiar with local people. “I myself don’t remember Akidy well. He could be several years older than me,” revealed Ayung.

Ayung indicated that the economic condition of the ethnic Chinese community in Langsa in the 1970s was very modest. “Only some of them belonged to the upper group as owners of veneer and plywood factories. They were even just business partners,” added Ayung.

Moving to Palembang

In 1976, Akidy and most of his children moved to Palembang, leaving Ahok in Langsa with his lemonade factory. The home industry measured 6 meters by 30 meters. Ahok lived in a house of the same size beside the factory. Since Ahok’s demise in 2013, nobody continued the lemonade business. The house was also sold by the Ahok family.

KOMPAS/JOHANES GALUH BIMANTARA

South Sumatra Regional Police Chief Inspector General Eko Indra Heri (front, second left) receives assistance for handling Covid-19 worth Rp 2 billion in goods from the United Palembang Chinese Community, Friday (6/8/2021), at the South Sumatra Police Headquarters, City Palembang.

In Palembang, Akidy once lived in a shophouse located on Jl. Veteran, Kepandean Baru subdistrict, Ilir Timur I district. This house faces a river and is on the opposite side of Kwa Cheng Bio shrine. Today the shophouse is occupied by a dentist, Luisa Emy. But Emy claimed to have just learned the house she had used since 1993 had once been the Akidy family’s residence.

In his early years in Palembang, Akidy was known to have a dart game stand in a night fair. Players placed their bets on certain dart-board numbers and threw darts decorated with chicken feathers at the rotating targets to win prizes if the darts pierced their chosen numbers.

As related by Ahok, 66, a resident living near the house of Akidy on Jl. Veteran, the chicken feather dart game was the initial business of Akidy in Palembang. “The dart game started in the 1970s. He jointly opened it with somebody, both were already old,” said Ahok. But he forgot Akidy’s business partner at the time.

A businessman in Palembang, Arifin, said he had once cooperated with Akidy around 1992-1993.

In the 1990s Akidy worked as a contractor. A businessman in Palembang, Arifin, said he had once cooperated with Akidy around 1992-1993. “He was building houses of transmigrants,” he said.

Arifin was then a contractor with PT Tania Selatan, who was asked by the executive board to assist in the procurement of about 500 houses of transmigrants in the concession area of the palm oil company PT Musi Banyuasin Indah in Musi Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra. Akidy handled the contracting work.

Arifin was in charge of supplying, among other things, wood, planks and food for project workers. He also frequently went to Akidy’s house on Jl. Veteran to collect payments. “He made smooth payments,” he added.

After the project was completed, Arifin had no idea of Akidy’s activity. Nor did he know if Akidy had any other business.

Ahok noted that he had learned about Akidy building a shophouse near his residence by the system of construction sharing. Akidy was given compensation in the form of a shophouse in the shophouse complex he had built.

KOMPAS/JOHANES GALUH BIMANTARA

The headstone of Akidy Tio\'s grave in the Chinese community cemetery area of ​​Talang Kerikil TPU, Sako District, Palembang City, South Sumatra, Monday (9/8/2021).

Asked for confirmation, the husband of Heryanty, Rudy Sutadi, affirmed that his father-in-law had once lived on Jl. Veteran. Yet regarding Akidy’s business, Rudy declined to comment much because he got married to Heryanty only in 1997.

Too far

So, how big is the wealth of Akidy that prompted Heryanty to promise a donation worth Rp 2 trillion? Is it true that Akidy deposited his money at an overseas bank?

Asked about the possibility of the Rp 2 trillion being deposited in Singapore, Rudy was unwilling to comment as he felt it was not his money. In fact, previously Rudy had said the Rp 2 trillion was bequeathed by Akidy, with the message to be granted to residents of Palembang when facing a critical situation. “Unless conveyed, we would incur bad karma,” said Rudy.

His deposits multiplied in value because the rupiah exchange rate dropped drastically against the US dollar at the time.

A national entrepreneur asked about the mystery of Akidy’s wealth said it was most likely for somebody to possess huge wealth if overseas deposits had long been maintained. This businessman said he could earn extra wealth abruptly following the monetary crisis of 1997. His surplus riches came from the money he deposited at a bank in a European country. His deposits multiplied in value because the rupiah exchange rate dropped drastically against the US dollar at the time.

The PPATK has finished examining the accounts and transaction history of family members of the late Akidy. The conclusion is that the total money value of the family is still too far from the amount of Rp 2 trillion, the nominal value of the donation promised by Heryanty. “A total of 25 accounts were examined,” said PPATK head Dian Ediana Rae on Thursday (12/8/2021).

The PPATK has not yet found the accounts of family members of Akidy overseas, including Singapore. “Overseas funds are still unclear because they are only limited to rumors of those concerned,” said Dian.

ISTIMEWA

The large family of the late entrepreneur Akidy Tio provided assistance to residents affected by the pandemic amounting to Rp. 2 trillion, at the South Sumatra Police Headquarters, Monday (26/7/2021). This assistance is a form of family concern for the people of South Sumatra.

Entrepreneur Sofjan Wanandi did not believe either that Akidy and his family could afford to donate Rp 2 trillion. “Those who donate usually derive the funds from part of their wealth. We as businessmen daily competing at home and abroad find it impossible to earn such a big fortune, and you are donating such a huge sum. There’s no such logic for businesspeople, unless the money comes down from the sky,” he said. (JOG/ FRD/ DIV/ NSA/ RAM/ BIL)

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira)