PASSING on at the grand old age of 96 in Singapore, Liem Sioe Liong or Sudono Salim left indelible footprints in the areas of Indonesian business and politics. The many and diverse businesses of the tycoon, a man born in Fujian, China, on July 16, 1916, ebbed and flowed in tandem with former president Suharto’s meteoric rise and fall. The two got acquainted with one another when Suharto commanded the Diponegoro Military Division in Central Java during the 1950s. Thanks to the political protection provided by Suharto and his own managerial expertise, the conglomeration of Om Liem—as Liem Sioe Liong was fondly called—rapidly spread over various sectors: banking, food, cement, television, property, automotive, the retail sector and others. His business behemoth became one of the New Order’s icons of economic growth.