B.J.

Habibie

President of Indonesia

B.J. Habibie, in full Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (born June 25,

1936, Parepare, Indonesia), Indonesian aircraft engineer and
politician who was president ofIndonesia (199899) and a
leader in the countrys technological and economic
development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Brilliant in science and mathematics from childhood, Habibie
received his postsecondary education at the Bandung Institute
of Technology in Bandung, Indonesia, and furthered his studies
at the Institute of Technology of North RhineWestphalia in
Aachen, West Germany. After graduating in 1960, he remained
in West Germany as an aeronautics researcher and production
supervisor.
Suharto took power as Indonesias second president in 1966,
and in 1974 he asked Habibiewhom he had known for 25
yearsto return to the country to help build advanced
industries. Suharto assured him that he could do whatever was
needed to accomplish that goal. Initially assigned to the state
oil company, Pertamina, Habibie became a government adviser
and chief of a new aerospace company in 1976. Two years later
he became research minister and head of the Agency for
Technology Evaluation and Application. In these roles he
oversaw a number of ventures involving the production and
transportation of heavy machinery, steel, electronics and
telecommunications equipment, and arms and ammunition.
Habibie believed his enterprises ultimately would spawn high-
tech ventures in the private sector and allow the country to
climb the technology ladder. In 1993 he unveiled the first
Indonesian-developed plane, which he helped design, and in
the following year he launched a plan to refurbish more than
three dozen vessels bought from the former East German navy
at his initiative. The Finance Ministry balked at the cost of the
latter endeavour, while the armed forces thought that its turf
had been violated. Nevertheless, Habibie got more than $400
million for refurbishing.
Meanwhile, in 1990 Habibie was appointed head of the
Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association, and during the
1993 central-board elections of the countrys ruling
party, Golkar, Habibie helped the children and allies of
President Suharto rise to top positions, easing out long-standing
military-backed power brokers. By the late 1990s Habibie was
viewed as one of several possible successors to the aging
Suharto.
In March 1998 Suharto appointed Habibie to the vice
presidency, and two months later, in the wake of large-scale
violence in Jakarta, Suharto announced his resignation. Thrust
unexpectedly into the countrys top position, Habibie
immediately began to implement major reforms. He appointed
a new cabinet; fired Suhartos eldest daughter as social affairs
minister as well as his longtime friend as trade and industry
minister; named a committee to draft less-restrictive political
laws; allowed a free press; arranged for free parliamentary and
presidential elections the following year; and agreed to
presidential term limits (two five-year terms). He also granted
amnesty to more than 100 political prisoners.
In 1999 Habibie announced that East Timor, a former
Portuguese colony that had been invaded by Indonesia in 1975,
could choose between special autonomy and independence;
the territory chose independence. Indonesia held free general
elections (the first since 1955) in June, as promised. Later that
year Habibie ran for president, but he withdrew his candidacy
shortly before the October election, which was won
by Abdurrahman Wahid. After Wahid took office, Habibie
essentially stepped out of politics, although in 2000 he
established the Habibie Center, a political research institute.