Hal Hill, an Australian writer on economics, once wrote in the Far Eastern Economic Review a piece titled Four Men Who Changed Indonesia. These were Mohamad Sadli, Hadi Soesastro, Boediono and Thee Kian Wie. They were four peas in a pod. All were humble men with unquestionable integrity, cosmopolitan yet nationalist, concerned with Indonesian education and enthusiastic about mentoring their younger peers.

Although they came from an earlier gener