August 18, 2026 | 11:44 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - During the 11 years he spent imprisoned under the New Order, Oei Tjoe Tat most looked forward to the food containers sent by his beloved wife, Kwee Loan Nio, better known as Rika. Though the meals often arrived mangled after prison guards had torn them apart during inspections, they became an oasis amid prison rations that were both meager and nutritionally inadequate.
From the time he was first detained at the Budi Utomo Military Detention Center (RTM) in Central Jakarta until he was transferred to the Nirbaya Rehabilitation Facility in East Jakarta, the former State Minister belonged to a small communal dining group with several other prisoners. Food sent by their families was shared among them.
Rika and the wives of other political prisoners took turns delivering meals to the prison each day. “We packed enough food in stacked containers to last a week. The guards poked through the rice and sliced open the papayas because they were afraid something was being hidden,” said Oei’s youngest son, Oei Tiang Tik, also known as Tikki Budiman, on Thursday, June 18, 2026.
While at the Budi Utomo RTM, Oei’s dining group included several prominent figures. Among them were former Deputy Attorney General Brig. Gen. Soenaryo; former Indonesian military attaché to the United Nations Col. Partono Karnen, Col. Mustopha, Col. Mamesa, and Capt. Juspiadi; as well as two leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), Soepono Marsudidjojo and Gatot Soetarjo, also known as Gatot Lestario.
