Phoa Liong Gie

After the Second World War, between 1946 and 1948, Phoa acted as a legal advisor and delegate of the Netherlands at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

He maintained, however, his political involvement. On May 8, 1939, Phoa was appointed by the Dutch authorities to the ‘Volksraad’ (the colonial parliament of Indonesia), and took his seat as an independent member.

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.

After Phoa resigned from the CHH in 1934, his newspapers assumed an increasingly sympathetic tone towards the Indonesian nationalist movement. The editorial board of Panorama included such leading nationalists as Sanusi Pane, Amir Sjarifuddin and Mohammad Yamin, with the prominent journalist, Liem Koen Hian, as chief editor. Liem, as well as Saeroen, also contributed to Siang Po. In mid-1936, Liem, Pane, Sjarifuddin and Yamin founded yet another daily, Kebangoenan, which Siang Po Printing Press likewise printed.

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. This was the beginning of Siang Po Printing Press, which would acquire or create more publications in due course. A year later, in 1931, Phoa's company bought another daily, Panorama, which had been founded by the writer and journalist Kwee Tek Hoay.

Upon returning to Bandung in 1927, Phoa joined the legal practice of the leading Dutch lawyer C. W. Wormser. A year later in 1928, Phoa moved to Batavia in order to open his own law firm.

The younger Phoa was educated at the Europeesche Lagere School (European lower school) in Garut, and at the Hogere Burgerschool (higher civic school) in Batavia. Both institutions admitted only the children of elite Europeans and a small number of select non-Europeans. Phoa subsequently studied at the Rechtshoogeschool (law school) in Batavia before continuing his education at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He graduated as a Meester in de rechten (‘Master of Laws’) in 1925.

Phoa Liong Gie Sia (simplified Chinese: 潘隆义舍; traditional Chinese: 潘隆義舍; pinyin: Pān lóng-yì shè: 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.

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. His great-grandfather, Phoa Tjeng Tjoan, served as Kapitein der Chinezen of Buitenzorg (now Bogor) from 1866 until 1878. This was a post in the colonial civil administration with political and legal jurisdiction over the local Chinese community. Phoa was styled 'Sia' from birth as the descendant of a Chinese officer. Phoa was also a great-nephew of the prominent community leader and landlord, Phoa Keng Hek Sia.