Teddy Jusuf


Teddy Jusuf is a retired brigadier general of Tentara Nasional Indonesia, Indonesia's armed forces. He is the first Chinese Indonesian to attain this rank in Tentara Nasional Indonesia, Indonesia's armed forces.
Currently Jusuf is chairman of the Chinese Indonesian Social Association.

Early life

Jusuf was born Him Tek Ji in Bogor, Indonesia to a migrant-born father and an Indonesian-born mother, both of Chinese descent.
He was ten years old when he saw his soldiers at an Indonesian military camp stationed near his school in North Jakarta where he grew up. He decided he would become a soldier.
Tek Ji attended both national and Chinese language schools as a boy and speaks Mandarin.

Military career

Him Tek Ji enrolled in the Indonesian Military Academy when he finished secondary school. He graduated in 1965 as Lt. Teddy Jusuf.
Despite enduring a lot of discrimination in his early days in the army, Jusuf rose through the ranks, becoming a brigadier general in 1983 and even serving as a senior staff member in army intelligence. Jusuf attributes his success to hard work, discipline and patience, qualities which would serve him well later in establishing the Chinese Indonesian Social Association.