22 - End of an Era

Summary

FAREWELL TO A TYCOON

Liem died on 10 June 2012 at Raffles Hospital in Singapore, just short of his ninety-fifth birthday. By the Chinese lunar calendar, it was the twenty-first day of the fourth leap month; a date that some considered coincidental as the figure 21 had always been special for the tycoon. Liem was buried at the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery in Singapore on 18 June, a date chosen by Buddhist monks. Despite the fact that he regarded Indonesia, where he lived for sixty years, as home, it was decided that the island state was the most appropriate place to hold his funeral and burial at this time. The long-term plan was to have his remains eventually moved to Java where he and his wife, who in June 2012 was too frail to travel, would eventually be buried. (A burial plot in land-scarce Singapore is only guaranteed for fifteen years, with the government exhuming multiple cemeteries to make way for development.)

Liem's death sparked a send-off rarely seen in Singapore for a nonpolitical figure. A parade of people from all over the region attended his week-long wake. The demand for wreaths was so great there was a shortage of fresh flowers in the country for a few days. Friends and business associates flooded Indonesian and Singapore newspapers with condolence announcements. First Pacific issued a statement on the death of its long-time chairman, noting that while retired from active involvement, Liem “stood at the peak of a long and distinguished career… His career culminated in the unofficial title, Indonesia's first industrialist.”

At the wake, air-conditioned tents were set up, and the Mandarin Orchard Singapore hotel, controlled by Mochtar Riady's Lippo Group, provided five-star catering for guests. Mourners covered the myriad of people whose lives had been touched by the cukong, including politicians, industrialists, businessmen, fellow clansmen and schoolchildren — beneficiaries of his philanthropy. Visitors from Indonesia included former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose family ties with Liem began with her grandfather Hasan Din, as well as Suharto's two youngest daughters, Titiek and Mamiek — the two among the six Suharto progeny that Liem once told the authors he felt the most affinity with.