Josephus Beek SJ (12 March 1917 in Amsterdam – 17 September 1983 in Jakarta) was a Dutch and later Indonesian Jesuit, priest, educator and politician. From approximately 1965 until approximately 1975 he was a very prominent, though secretive, political consultant to the Indonesian president Suharto.

Early career

Joop Beek grew up in Amsterdam in a family with Indonesian connections. In 1935, he entered the Jesuit order in Mariëndaal in Grave in the Netherlands . In 1938 he was transferred to work in a Jesuit college in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. During the Second World War he was interned by the Japanese until 1945, and come liberation he was held for seven more months by the insurgent Indonesians. In 1946, he returned to the Netherlands, to Maastricht, to study for priesthood, was ordained in 1948 and again sent to Yogyakarta, where he stayed until 1959. Here he also started setting up Catholic student organizations, that would prove the basis for his later political influence.

In 1960, Father Beek started work in Jakarta, where he became increasingly convinced of the danger of the communists in Indonesia, especially to the Catholics. He set up an intensive one-month leadership training course named KASBUL (Kaderisasi Sebulan), on strict ascetic and disciplinarian principles. KASBUL was successful in fostering a generation of militantly anti-communist and anti-Islamic Catholic leaders.

Advisor to Suharto

The KASBUL program connected Father Beek with the upper echelons of government in Indonesia, including then-president Sukarno and military figures such as Suharto. A rift with Sukarno developed because of his increasingly communist preferences, drawing him in closer connection to Indonesian military intelligence.[1]

Following the failure of the October 30 Movement, Father Beek sent his well-organized students into the streets to demonstrate against the Communists . As communists were massacred following the coup attempt, Father Beek became a close advisor to President Suharto, up to approximately 1975. Father Beek then had already taken Indonesian citizenship.

Although Father Beek was a secretive figure, his influence in Suharto's government was well known. In one interview, Dutch reporters Aad van den Heuvel and Ed van Westerloo asked the Father whether he knew anything about the subject of an upcoming speech by Suharto. Father Beek allegedly replied "I don't know, I'm still writing it".[2][3]

After the elimination of the communists, Father Beek turned his attention to mitigating the influence of Islam in Indonesian governance. It is alleged that he influenced Suharto into founding the Golkar Party to represent the non-Islamic middle class and Catholic voters. Father Beek also supported the establishment of the conservative CSIS thinktank by his former student Jusuf Wanandi.

Many other students of Father Beek obtained important positions in Indonesian politics and business, including Cosmas Batubara.

Notes

  1. ↑ Robinson, Geoffrey B. (Feb 13, 2018). The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66. Princeton University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780691161389.
  2. ↑ nl:Aad van den Heuvel
  3. ↑ http://geschiedenis.vpro.nl/artikelen/41290181/ (Dutch)

References

  • Feeling Threatened, Muslim-Christian Relations in Indonesia' s New order: by Mujiburrahman, Amsterdam University Press, 2006, ISBN 90-5356-938-3, ISBN 978-90-5356-938-2, 428 pages
  • Sukarno and the Indonesian coup: The Untold Story, by Helen-Louise Hunter, PSI reports, 2007
  • Soedarmanta, J. B., Pater Beek, SJ: Larut Tetapi Tidak Hanyut ("Father Beek SJ: Dissolved, but Not Drowned"), Yayasan Obor Indonesia, Jakarta (2008)
  • Pater Joop Beek, de man achter Soeharto Hilversum, VPRO radio history (Dutch), 1 February 2009
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