Josephus Gerardus Beek SJ (12 March 1917 in Amsterdam – 17 September 1983 in Jakarta) was a Dutch and later Indonesian Jesuit, priest, educator and politician.
Father Beek's forceful personality and strident anti-communism caused clashes with other members of the Jesuit hierarchy in Indonesia, and he was sent on a year-long sabbatical to England in 1960.
[1] Father Beek's activism drew him into contact with the upper echelons of government in Indonesia, including then-president Sukarno and military figures such as Suharto.
In 1966, he set up an intensive one-month leadership training course named Kasebul (Kaderisasi Sebulan), based on strict ascetic and disciplinarian principles.
For each session of the program, thirty young Catholic men were selected from throughout Indonesia to learn organizational and rhetorical skills, compose reports, and reflect on themselves.
Father Beek saw the role of his cadres as being "salt" in Indonesian society; a small part of the overall population, but one with an outsized impact on politics.
From the early 1970s, Beek's influence in Suharto's government began to diminish, as the President attempted to secure his power by appealing to reformist Muslims.