B.J. Habibie

B.J. Habibie (born June 25, 1936, Parepare, Indonesia—died September 11, 2019, Jakarta) Indonesian aircraft engineer and politician who was president of Indonesia (1998–99) and a leader in the country’s 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 Rhine–Westphalia in Aachen, West Germany. After graduating in 1960, he remained in West Germany as an aeronautics researcher and production supervisor.

Suharto took power as Indonesia’s second president in 1966, and in 1974 he asked Habibie—whom he had known for 25 years—to 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 country’s 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 country’s top position, Habibie immediately began to implement major reforms. He appointed a new cabinet; fired Suharto’s 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.