Phoa Liong Gie

Phoa Liong Gie Sia (: born in Bandung on June 4, 1905 – died on January 14, 1983, in Switzerland) was an Indonesian-born Swiss jurist, politician and newspaper owner of the late colonial era in the Dutch East Indies.

Background and education

He was born in 1905 into a prominent family of Peranakan Chinese roots, part of the Cabang Atas or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia.

Phoa came into conflict with some of the policies of the older party leadership, represented by the senior parliamentarians H. H. Kan and Loa Sek Hie. Phoa resented his party leaders’ pro-Dutch sympathies, and advocated Chinese neutrality in the Indonesian struggle for independence. Phoa even indicated his willingness to support Indonesian nationalism in the right set of circumstances. Following an open conflict in 1934 with H. H. Kan, over the latter's supposed dominance over CHH, Phoa resigned his membership of the party.

Newspaper proprietor

Around the time of his move to Batavia in 1928, Phoa also became active in the burgeoning news media and public discourse of colonial Indonesia. In 1930, he acquired a daily newspaper, Perniagaan, whose name he changed to Siang Po. A year later, in 1931, Phoa's company bought another daily, Panorama, which had been founded by the writer and journalist Kwee Tek Hoay.

After Phoa resigned from the CHH in 1934, his newspapers assumed an increasingly sympathetic tone towards the Indonesian nationalist movement.

Phoa was also the owner of two further publications, the magazines Si Pao and Kong Hwa Po, the last of which was similarly under Liem's editorial oversight. Aliran-Aliran dalam Siahwee Tionghoa (Lezing dari Mr. Phoa Liong Gie dalem Pauze dari Soiree Musicale Chung Hwa Hui Afd. Batavia (in Malay) [English: 'Various Streams within the Chinese Community (Speech by Mr. Phoa Liong Gie during the Interval of a Musical Soiree of Chung Hua Hui, Batavia Branch']. Batavia: Drukkerij Siang Po (1932): no page number. De Economische Positie der Chineezen in Nederlandsch-Indië (In Dutch) [English: 'The changing economic position of the Chinese in Netherlands India']. Koloniale Studiën 5:6 (1936): 97–119.