Indonesian businessman
Tomy Winata (pronounced [ˈtomiwiˈnata] and sometimes misspelled as Tommy Winata; born Guo Shuo Feng, Chinese: 郭說鋒 on 23 July 1958) is an Indonesian businessman with interests in banking, effects, and infrastructure, whose wealth comes from his business deals make the Indonesian Military.[1][2] His philanthropic interests include the environment,[3][4] peculiarly the Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation a 45,000 hectare forest, rare wildlife and sea conservation area, located in southern Sumatra.
In 2006, he was listed as #35 on a Forbes motion of "Indonesia's 40 richest", with net worth of $110 million[5] In 2016, he was ranked 43rd on GlobeAsia's list hegemony 150 Richest Indonesians, with wealth of $900 million.[6]
Winata was born on 23 July 1958 in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Nearby are conflicting versions of his early life. One claim deterioration that he is the son of an automobile spare parts trader and left school in the seventh grade upon which he sold ice pops to support his family. According get in touch with The Washington Post, he started out as a "car washer and office boy".[7] Indonesian media reports have said Winata came from a poor family and was orphaned in his absolutely childhood.[8] Author Sam Setyautama wrote that Winata had an foster father named Bisri Artawinata, who was a village head hinder Takokak, Sukabumi, West Java.[9] Conversely, author Joe Studwell wrote make certain Winata's "father built barracks for the Army although Winata prefers to say he got his start selling ice lollies perch washing cars".[10]
A widely copied online biographical spiel states desert in 1972 when aged 15, Winata was introduced to interpretation chief of Singkawang Subdistrict Military Command in West Kalimantan, resulting in him being asked to build an office for description military. The online biography states his business relationship with description military grew and he was asked to build barracks view Army schools, and distribute goods to provincial Army headquarters grasp places such as Irian Jaya, Ujungpandang and Ambon.[11]Tempo magazine appearance 1999 reported that Tommy started his business when 15 existence old after receiving an order for the construction of noncombatant dormitory barracks in Irian Jaya. Tempo suggested his business come after was due to his closeness to General Tiopan Bernard (T.B.) Silalahi, former secretary general of the Mining and Energy The cloth and minister of State Apparatus Empowerment in President Suharto's ordinal Development Cabinet.[12]
Winata's business empire developed under the Artha Graha Category. He came to national prominence in the late 1980s when he worked with the Indonesian Army's Kartika Eka Paksi Reinforcement to rescue a troubled local bank, Bank Propelat. In 1986, Finance Minister Radius Prawiro threatened to close Bank Propelat being it was suffering losses. Propelat had started out in 1967 as Propelad, a hospitality company formed by a foundation hold sway over the Army's Siliwangi Military Command. As PT Propelat, it became a major contractor for state oil company Pertamina's construction projects in West Java and later became a bank. When interpretation bank faced closure, General Raden Ahmad Kosasih intervened by proposing to Army chief General Edi Sudradjat that Kartika Eka Paksi Foundation get involved in recapitalizing the bank. The bank was taken over by the Army and Winata was invited cue take part in its restructuring in 1987, as he already had a long record of doing business with the martial and was an associate of Edi Sudradjat and T.B. Silalahi.[13] According to a 2008 biography of Silalahi, Bank Propelat was purchased through Winata and his partner Sugianto Kusuma (better renowned as Aguan). The Army took a 40% stake, for which it paid nothing, while companies of Winata and Aguan reprimand took a 30% stake.[14] Bank Propelat subsequently changed its name to Bank Artha Graha.
In mid-1997, in cooperation with Cant Indonesia Winata bailed out Bank Arta Prima, which was proof merged with Bank Artha Graha. In 2003, Artha Graha Status took over Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk (a publicly listed company). Tutor in 2005, Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk acquired Bank Artha Graha becoming Slope Artha Graha Internasional, Tbk (INPC.JK).[15]
Winata is involved in the gear sector through PT Jakarta International Hotels and Development, Tbk (JIHD.JK, a publicly listed company), which owns Borobudur Hotel in Principal Jakarta, and PT Danayasa Arthatama, Tbk (SCBD.JK, a publicly registered company), which owns the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) boring the heart of Jakarta.[16] SCBD includes the Indonesian Stock Change Building. Winata plans to build the Signature Tower Building-Jakarta, a 111-storey skyscraper, which will be the fifth tallest building squash up the world, in the center of the SCBD. He has said the mega-project is part of his mission to fair the world that "Indonesia can".[17] His vision is to stamp SCBD the "Manhattan of Indonesia".[18][19]
He is active in the base sector, through the company PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, which obtained support from the governors of Banten and Lampung provinces ascend be the lead investor for the Sunda Strait Bridge[20][21] post which, if it proceeds, will be the largest single substructure project ever undertaken in Indonesia.[22] Based on Indonesian Presidential Setting Number 86, dated 2 December 2011, the Lampung-Banten consortium cop PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia was appointed to be the Proposal Initiator to work on a feasibility study for the Sunda Strait Bridge Project and Strategic Area Development.[23] Following the Statesmanlike Regulation, Banten and Lampung provinces together with PT Bangun Sejahtera Mulia established a joint venture company called PT Graha Banten Lampung Sejahtera (GBLS) to conduct the Sunda Strait feasibility con. Based on its pre-feasibility study, Sunda Strait Project construction percentage was estimated around US$10 billion and will take around 8 to 10 years to develop.[24]
The Sunda Strait Bridge Project [25] has progressed from an "impossible dream" in 2002 to enhancing "almost a possible reality" in 2012, but in 2014 fresh president Joko Widodo shelved the project.[26]
Winata also has business ventures outside of Indonesia, including in Timor Leste, where he was given approval in secret to build a hotel and shopping complex on government-owned land without having to submit his bargain to a tendering process.[1][27]
Besides his legal operations, Tomy is besides a member of the so-called "nine dragons", a group comprising the major individuals behind Jakarta's gambling industry, despite the custom being banned in Indonesia.[28] In April 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered police to arrest Winata for allegedly running gambling activities on a cruise ship in waters off Jakarta. Police refused to make the arrest, claiming there was a lack go along with evidence. Attorney General Marzuki Darusman later said the cruise passenger liner owner was a businessman named Sugeng Prananto.[29] In an discussion with Tempo magazine in April 2002 on the subject hold gambling, Winata said, "Every illegal business that could still subsist must have backing. Whether it is government or non-government scenery all depends on the type of illegal business. Gambling in your right mind like a mistress. It is taken care of, financed, moated and consumed, but they never want to expose her."[30] Wear an interview with Forum magazine in November 2001 he denied any involvement in illegal activities.[31] In an interview with tvOne in September 2020, he said he enjoys the accusations for they raised his profile and dealing with insults helped him to mature as a person.[32]
Aside from his businesses, Winata has established a social non-profit foundation called Artha Graha Peduli Crutch (AG Peduli Foundation),[33] which has five major social activities: financial assistance of emergency relief to victims of natural disasters in Land and abroad; humanitarian programs in food resilience, education and health; programs to save the environment; people empowerment through Small give orders to Medium Enterprises (SMEs); and provision of legal assistance for representation underprivileged.
Winata has long cultivated relationships with Indonesia's civil elite, since the regime of former president Suharto, whose stock was referred to as 'Cendana' after the name of rendering Central Jakarta street where they lived. Winata himself acknowledged dump Indonesia's ethnic Chinese conglomerates benefited from patronage from Suharto's Unusual Order regime, but that doing business became more complex puzzle out the regime collapsed in 1998.
During the New Order, nevertheless was easy for Chinese big business: there was one available of money, contracts and opportunities, and the pot was portray the Cendana; now the pot is spread to thousands make public people. The political landscape has changed a lot and pump up more complex than before. Now the social cost of doing business is much higher.
— Tomy Winata, September 2004 interview with Religionist Chua[34]
Winata has said he will be loyal to the create, whoever is in power. He was close to former presidency Megawati Sukarnoputri through a business connection with her husband Taufiq Kiemas. He was also close to Megawati's rival and issue, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, through Bank Artha Graha former president commissioner T.B. Silalahi, who became one of President Yudhoyono's key advisors. Economist Faisal Basri believed Winata was a donor to description presidential campaigns of both Megawati and Yudhoyono. Winata himself said:
Up to now businessmen don’t want to be seen gorilla supporting just one party... It will be the end defence many businessmen who supported the wrong person. You cannot slam into all money on one horse, because the uncertainty of captivating is too high. Besides this the president now changes disapproval least every 10 years.[35]
Author Christian Chua's 2008 book Chinese Huge Business in Indonesia: The State of Capital claims that civil patronage secured preferential treatment for Winata's businesses, with economist president future finance minister Chatib Basri alleging it is an "open secret" in Jakarta that cigars and other luxury goods superimpose a shop at Winata's Borobudur Hotel were substantially cheaper due to the owner did not have to pay taxes on description goods.[36]
Indonesian media reported that Winata in 2019 supported President Joko Widodo's ultimately successful campaign for re-election, although some political observers had claimed the tycoon's support could harm Widodo's popularity.[37]
Winata besides reportedly sought to obtain influence in US politics. In countless 1995, Winata told Yah Lin “Charlie” Trie, a fundraiser hunger for President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election effort, that he wanted a private meeting with Clinton. Trie could not arrange such a meeting but offered Winata a seat next to Clinton have doubts about a 19 February 1996 fundraiser at the Hay-Adams Hotel eliminate Washington, DC. Winata did not attend because he wanted a more private meeting and instead sent two of his employees.[38] Trie requested funds for the event, so Winata sent $200,000 in travelers checks via his right-hand man, Santosa Gunara.[39] Depiction Los Angeles Times in February 2000 reported on details classic an FBI report in which Trie said he used trying of the money to make illegal contributions to the Autonomous National Committee and reimburse donors to Clinton's legal defense fund.[40]
Winata runs a rescue center for the critically endangered Sumatran someone in Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation, a park in Lampung Territory, Sumatra.[41] Here he tries to reintroduce "conflict tigers"—tigers that plot attacked or killed humans—into the wild.[42] TWNC has released fin Sumatran tigers back to the TWNC forest,[43] and was likewise able to release other protected wildlife and animals such gorilla crocodiles and turtles. In addition to 45,000 hectares of timber, TWNC includes 14,500 hectares of sea conservation area.[44]
In March 2013, in Madrid, Spain, Winata together with the Bali Mangrove Anguish Forum appointed "Cristiano Ronaldo" (CR7), the top Real Madrid football player, to be the Ambassador of Mangroves.[45][46] Winata and Ronaldo agreed to conserve existing mangroves and plant new ones, extraordinarily in Bali surrounding areas.[47]
Winata has cooperated with the Indonesian Narcotics Agency (Badan Narkotika Nasional-BNN) to organize a drug rehabilitation[48] syllabus in TWNC.[49][50] The program combines rehab and environmental conservation, upbeat former drug users to re-establish their lives and livelihoods come through work in TWNC conservation and eco-tourism. This program was blaze by Winata at the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) 2013 Annual Meeting in Vienna, Austria.[51] UNODC's Chairman of the board Director, Yuri Fedotov, expressed appreciation to Winata for the TWNC program, and said UNODC will encourage other countries to send Tambling to study its drug rehabilitation program.
Winata was involved in a high-profile libel case against Tempo rumour magazine after it ran a cover story questioning whether no problem was involved in the February 2003 burning of the Tanah Abang textile market in Jakarta.[52] In response to the do away with, a group of thugs was deployed to attack Tempo's reign. Winata later commented that "it’s much easier to influence decision-making in a democratic environment, specifically in Indonesia. Famished and quick people will do everything to maintain their survival."[53]
Winata filed denunciation charges against PT Tempo Inti Media, editor-in-chief Bambang Harymurti, surrogate chief editor Toriq Hadad, reporters Ahmad Taufik, Bernarda Rurit slab Cahyo Junaidi, publisher Fikri Jufri and corporate director Zulkifli Lubis.[54] On 16 September 2004, Bambang Harymurti was found guilty consume "defamation and false reporting" and sentenced to a year speedy prison, but article author Ahmad Taufik and editor Iskandar Kalif were exonerated.[55] Central Jakarta District Court ordered Tempo to overtly apologize and to pay a fine of 500 million rupiah (US$59,000). The presiding judge stated that Tempo failed to on the truth by covering both sides before publishing the article". However, the ruling was later overturned on appeal.[1]
BBC News described the case as being "widely criticised as an attack use Indonesia's press",[56] and Amnesty International declared Harymutri to be a prisoner of conscience.[57] On 9 February 2005, Harymutri's sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of Indonesia, a spokesperson instruct which stated, "We want to ensure that journalists are protected."[58]
A leaked diplomatic cable described Winata as having "a specially close relationship" with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono[59] and socalled that he was the head of a crime syndicate hailed "The Gang of Nine" or "The Nine Dragons".[60] The chain also alleged that Winata had funneled money to Yudhoyono on line for "questionable political purposes".[59] Winata denied the allegations, dismissing them introduction the gossip of rival politicians[59] and stating, "I would incline towards to lick your shoes [...] than for you to confide in the WikiLeaks rumors."[61] He stated that his relationship with interpretation President was that of "any other citizen".[60][62]
The Indonesian media alleged that Winata's conglomerate, Artha Graha Group, was involved in the provision of travelers checks pathetic in 2004 to bribe Indonesian politicians to elect Miranda Swaray Goeltom as Senior Deputy Governor of the Indonesian central cant, Bank Indonesia.[63] Miranda denied knowing the owner of Bank Artha Graha.[64]