biography text about bj habibie

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B.J. Habibie

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• GlobalSecurity.org - Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
• Academia - B.J. Habibie Biography
• Lowy Institute - Habibie’s lasting legacy for Indonesia

B.J. Habibie (born June 25, 1936, Parepare, Indonesia—died September 11, 2019, Jakarta) was an 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.

B. J. Habibie Biography

B. J. Habibie

Trained as an aeronautical engineer, Habibie worked as a vice president and director for technology application at the German aeronatics concern Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm bfor several years before he was recalled to Indonesia to oversee the country's state-owned high-tech industries. He worked under President Suharto for 20 years, first as minister of state for research and technology where he oversaw the attempted development of an Indonesian aircraft industry, and later as vice president. Habibie's days as vice president were few, however, as the economic troubles that had been festering under Suharto's crony capitalism boiled over just 10 weeks after Habibie's appointment. In May 1998, Suharto resigned after 32 years as undisputed head of state, handing the reins over to Habibie. Habibie quickly removed from office the most egregious examples of Suharto's nepotism in an attempt to distinguish himself from his predecessor and win favor with the emerging opposition factions. In 1999 he lost a parliamentary vote of confidence and he withdrew from the presidential race.

• Indonesia Department of State Background

Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.

Who Is B.J. Habibie?

H ow do you take power from an autocrat who for 32 years has ruthlessly put down all challenges to his rule? Sometimes, as Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie showed in Indonesia last week, by pretending until the very last minute not to want it. Habibie had been slipped into the No. 2 position of Vice President only 10 weeks ago by his patron of 24 years, the Indonesian strongman he slavishly referred to as S.G.S., Supergenius Suharto. The mere suggestion that Suharto’s successor at the height of Indonesia’s search for an economic bailout would be a man widely regarded as a free-spending eccentric shocked the bankrupt rupiah into a 36% crash. But Habibie (commonly referred to as B.J.) possesses the one quality Suharto needed, extreme loyalty, and continued to give it to the embattled President while students trampled their despised leader’s effigy, longtime allies called for his resignation, and an emboldened press made fun of the man who had come to symbolize the systemic rot that underlies Asia’s economic crisis.

Late Wednesday night, after Parliament threatened to begin impeachment proceedings and the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, paid a private visit to Suharto’s residence, loyalty paid off. The old man was finally stepping down, and Habibie, 61, would take over. Yet even at Thursday morning’s hasty ceremony for the handover of power, Habibie kept up his characteristic deference. After a sadly smiling Suharto apologized for his mistakes and announced his resignation, Habibie appeared to hesitate. His mentor gestured with his hand, like a father to a nervous child, and Habibie stepped forward to take the oath of office. Moments later he scuttled out of the room behind Suharto, leaving Wiranto to announce the quid pro quo. The armed forces would fully support the transfer of power to Habibie and had agreed to protect the safety of Suharto and his notoriously corrupt family members. A deal had been done.

But would it be accepted by anyone outside the presidential palace? To many of the students who celebrated Suharto’s departure by dancing for joy in the fountain at the Parliament complex they had occupied for four days, Habibie was a perpetuation of the problem that brought Indonesia to its knees–the authoritarian system of crony capitalism known by its Indonesian acronym of KKN, for corruption, collusion and nepotism. Had all the riots and deaths–more than 500–given Indonesians nothing but a clone of the kleptocrat they had so painfully deposed?

The forces of change wanted to sweep away not just Suharto but also all the political and economic abuses he embodied. They were held back, in the end, by the military establishment’s innate deference, caution and desire for stability. The rest of the world reacted coolly to the elevation of a Suharto confidant perceived as particularly ill equipped to rescue Indonesia from its economic ruin. In Washington, Clinton Administration officials assumed that Habibie’s tenure would be short, and they hoped the country could then move on to real reform.

Even as the students who had wrought the revolution were peacefully but firmly cleared from the Parliament building in the early hours of Saturday morning, few Indonesians thought Habibie would be more than a brief tenant of the presidential office. “I don’t see Habibie enjoying meaningful political support from anyone,” said Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a former Minister of Environment. “In the economic crisis we lost trust. We have to regain trust, and Habibie is not the man for that.” Indonesia’s transition out of the Suharto era into a modern, free-market democracy has, with his departure, just barely begun.

The past two weeks have been traumatic. Seething frustration at increased food prices and widespread layoffs provoked by the worst economic crisis in decades crystallized into the demand for Suharto’s removal. Intellectuals and students extended their anger to the country’s lack of real democracy in a system that not only perpetuated Suharto and the army in power but also squelched press freedom, genuine opposition parties and independent courts. But for most ordinary Indonesians it was the spiraling bus fares and price of cooking oil forced on them by corruption and malfeasance that cost Suharto his legitimacy. Much of the anger focused on the rapaciousness of his family, whose members controlled large sectors of the economy, from airlines, hotel chains and car manufacturing to a monopoly in cloves. Even as the economy was imploding, Suharto’s grandson Ari Sigit was trying to set up a monopoly in school shoes.

Indonesia’s problems are so difficult to solve that not even an extraordinarily clever politician bolstered by overwhelming public support would find it easy to take over. And Habibie, a man who enjoys Beethoven, motorcycles and tomes on high-tech industrial policy, seems the least likely candidate. He has no political base, nor can he necessarily count on the long-term backing of the powerful military. Economists and stock analysts around Asia question Habibie’s ability to bring sensible change to Indonesia’s choking economy–his big-spending statist policies are anathema to the International Monetary Fund–and politicians forecast continuing turmoil as secular and religious groups compete for influence now that Suharto’s strong restraining hand has been lifted.

Suharto himself had reservations about Habibie’s ability to rule on his own. On Tuesday, the President summoned a group of Islamic leaders to discuss the mounting protests. According to participant Nurcholish Madjid, a political observer from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, when they told Suharto he could not hold on and should step down, he asked, “Can you guarantee that if Vice President Habibie becomes the President, the troubles will end?” The men in the room remained silent, says Nurcholish. “None of us wanted Habibie to be President.”

What disturbs Indonesians and foreign observers alike is that Habibie’s entire political career was based on by his closeness to Suharto. He is closer to the ousted leader than anyone else outside the President’s immediate family. Their father-son relationship goes back to the death of Habibie’s real father in 1950. Suharto, a military officer, befriended the family and closed the old man’s eyes on his deathbed. Habibie, then 13, has revered his protector ever since. In his autobiography, Suharto wrote of the protege that he “regards me as his own parent. He always asks for my guidance and takes down notes on [my] philosophy.”

With his shrill voice and constant gesticulating, Habibie comes across as an excitable, almost manic character. An Asian leader who has met him says, “He can’t listen. He never stops talking.” Newspaper publisher Aristides Katoppo remembers joining Habibie for a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister in 1993. The meeting was supposed to last 15 minutes but dragged on for 45, as Habibie gabbed nonstop to his polite Japanese guests. After the meeting, he bragged that the extended meeting showed his importance. His self-regard is displayed on the Internet, where he maintains a home page with an exhaustive resume listing every prize and award he has received in his career, every post he has held, even details of his heart surgery. Habibie, says the site, “is the idol and dream of all parents, who wish their offspring to become another Habibie.”

The man is of a complex character. He is a devout Muslim who fasts on Monday and Thursday, even when he is traveling abroad. In 1990 he founded the Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals in an attempt to reach out to some of the 87% of the population, including most of the poor, who are Muslim. His religious supporters hope he will spread their dream of Islamic ascendancy for Indonesia. Yet he is a highly educated scientist and dedicated believer in the power of technology. He studied aeronautical engineering in Germany and worked his way up to a vice presidency at the aircraft makers Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm before Suharto personally called him home in 1974 to help Indonesia establish an industrial base. For 20 years he served as Minister of Research and Technology, developing a string of “strategic industries” to build airplanes, steel mills, cars and ships in Indonesia.

But the bright engineer foundered when confronted with practical policy decisions. Habibie boasted of being able to “leapfrog” low-skill industries, which would have given needed employment to the country’s vast mass of unskilled laborers, and move straight into expensive high-tech ventures. The billions of dollars of public money he spent on his strategic companies did little to advance industrial development. His most extravagant pet project, a $2 billion attempt to build an indigenous aircraft, the propeller-driven N-250, was deprived of state funding as a condition of IMF assistance.

Not all Habibie’s business enthusiasm was lavished on the public sector. Like his mentor, he dabbled lucratively in private enterprise through his family. The Habibie clan controls two large conglomerates–the Timsco Group, named after his younger brother Timmy, and the Repindo Panca Group, headed by his second son Tareq Kamal Habibie. Many of the more than 66 companies in these two groups have fed off contracts from the state enterprises Habibie oversaw as Technology Minister, says sociologist George Aditjondro of the University of Newcastle in Australia. That does not bode well for a clean government under a Habibie presidency. “The Habibie-family companies are so deeply involved with the Suharto-family companies,” says Aditjondro, that Habibie naturally “will try to protect Suharto and his family from impeachment.”

Habibie’s reputation for loony ideas is at its worst when it comes to economics. He is widely ridiculed for his bizarre “zig-zag theory,” based on the notion that cutting interest rates, then doubling them, then slashing them again will reduce inflation. His inexperience petrifies investors. “Even if you zero out the political risk, economically you still have a mess here,” says Matthew Pecot, head of research with GK Goh Securities in Jakarta. “Give it two weeks or so, and I think the students will be back out there protesting against Habibie.”

In an effort to reassure the moneymen and political lenders on whom Indonesia’s economic revival depends, Habibie announced a new “reform and development” Cabinet that conspicuously dropped the most prominent of Suharto’s cronies, and pledged to develop a government “free of corruption, collusion and nepotism.” Few of Habibie’s critics were impressed. Amien Rais, who leads the 28 million-member Muhammadiyah Muslim organization and has emerged as one of the strongest opposition figures in the past two weeks, said he would “neither endorse nor oppose” the new Cabinet but doubted it would last the full term, to 2003.

Foreign investors are worried that Habibie may allow Muslim activists a greater role in society than they were permitted under Suharto. Unsettling signs appeared the day after Habibie’s swearing in, when hundreds of Muslim protesters forced their way into Parliament to confront students still demonstrating for greater democratic reforms. They advanced shouting, “Muslims must support Habibie!” and “Religion and politics are one and the same!” The security forces had to intervene to prevent a serious riot from breaking out.

If–and that’s a big if–Habibie’s new Cabinet is able to make headway in restoring the economy, his presidency may defy expectations and last its full term, some analysts say. Even so, Indonesia will change in ways that were impossible under Suharto’s centralized control. The press has thrown off self-censorship, and the next step could be the legitimization of multiparty politics to accommodate the newfound sense of “people power.” John Sidel, a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, predicts, “You will see a great diversity in government, and all these different groups will be appealing to the people.” The monopolies, nontariff barriers and nepotism that distorted the market process, says Emil Salim, a former Cabinet minister, can be countered by “empowering institutions outside the government. It will not be a smooth ride, but I think the direction is already correct for reform.”

As Jakarta looked toward the long process ahead of physical and political healing, there was tense uncertainty about Habibie and how long he would hold the power that had so serendipitously devolved upon him. But deeper down, many Indonesians had a sense that a great shift was taking place in their country. “Everything is moving, the way water moves,” said Ade Nasution, a businessman who turned up at the Parliament last week to support the students. “I don’t think anything can stop it.” Despite Habibie’s accession, Suharto’s departure leaves a political vacuum. Indonesians are left to wonder who or what is really going to fill it.

–Reported by John Colmey and David Liebhold/Jakarta, Jay Branegan and Douglas Waller/Washington

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Top 10 Interesting Facts about B. J Habibie

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1. Habibie was a brilliant engineer

Official state portrait of President B.J. Habibie of Indonesia Presidential Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia. Image by (Sekretariat Presiden Republik Indonesia) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Kementerian Luar Negeri Republik Indonesia) – Wikimedia

2. He is the only Indonesia President to have had a technocratic background

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie Datum. Image by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo – Wikimedia

3. Habibie is the shortest serving Vice President and President in Indonesia

4. Habibie was a reformist

BJ Habibie & her mother Tuti Marini. Image by National Library of Indonesia – Wikimedia

5. He was not a fan of Suharto’s dictatorship

Monument of Habibie. Image by MesinKetik – Wikimedia

6. Habibie let East Timor become independent

7. he protected suharto and his family from corruption investigations, 8. habibie’s 48-year marriage became the subject of two popular movies in indonesia.

Habibie, former President of Indonesia, with his wife, Ainun. Image by Office of the Vice President The Republic of Indonesia – Wikimedia

9. He was a major contributor to Indonesia’s aircraft industry

Patung B.J. Habibie. Image by Fiqhi Rizky – Wikimedia

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BJ Habibie: Indonesian leader whose short tenure was marked by a shift to greater democracy

He attempted to steer a path away from the dictatorship of his predecessor suharto, and set in train the liberation of timor-leste, article bookmarked.

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Though he was president of Indonesia for just 512 days, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who has died aged 83, had an impact considered to be far out of proportion to the brevity of his tenure, marking as it did the beginning of a more liberal era in his country’s history with a move towards democracy after General Suharto ’s three-decade dictatorship.

BJ Habibie (as he was known) was born in Parepare Afdeling in the Dutch East Indies. His father, who died when he was 14, was an agriculturist and his mother came from an aristrocratic Javanese family. Habibie was the fourth of eight children.

Habibie travelled to the Netherlands to study aviation at the Delft University of Technology. However, the West New Guinea dispute, a conflict over territory between Indonesia and the Netherlands, interrupted his studies and he completed his degree at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany. He stayed on in Aachen as a research assistant while completing a doctorate.

Habibie was by now working for Waggonfabrik Talbot, designing train wagons, but he turned down the chance to progress in the rail industry to complete his dissertation in aerospace engineering and join Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm. There, he developed three eponymous theories in thermodynamics (the Habibie Factor), construction (the Habibie Theorem) and aerodynamics (the Habibie Method). He also worked on the development of the Airbus A300B, and was promoted to vice president in 1974.

That year, President Suharto, who saw the engineer as an important part of his drive to industrialise the nation, wooed Habibie back to Indonesia. Habibie began this new stage of his career at the state oil company Pertmamina but two years later was made CEO of Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio, the state-owned business that would become Indonesian Aerospace. And in 1978, he made a step into government as minister of research and technology. This was the beginning of more than 20 years continuous service as a member of the Indonesian cabinet. Simultaneously, he headed 10 state-owned industries, including arms and energy.

Habibie knew how to handle Suharto’s vanities. He referred to his boss as “SGS” (Super Genius Suharto) and cultivated the favour of the president’s wider family. It looked as though Habibie was being rewarded for his loyalty when Suharto named him as his vice presidential running mate in 1998. However, having won the election, Suharto suddenly resigned, leaving Habibie the top job and all the accompanying political and economic mess. Few expected Habibie to stay long in the role. He admitted in his memoir: “The slightly more optimistic predicted that I would not last more than 100 days.”

Once in power, however, Habibie seemed set to do things differently. He vowed to tackle the corruption of his predecessor’s regime, he lifted restrictions on political parties and the media and, during a speech on National Day, apologised for human rights violations under Suharto (although a day earlier he had decorated Suharto’s wife and son).

Habibie also turned his attention to Timor-Leste . The former Portuguese colony had been illegally occupied by Indonesia since 1975. Now Habibie offered the territory a referendum on self-determination. When the resulting vote for independence was met with violence from pro-Indonesian militias, Habibie allowed the intervention of a UN peacekeeping force. He also ordered the release of Xanana Gusmao, the resistance leader who would become independent Timor-Leste’s first president.

Alas, Timorese independence did not improve Habibie’s popularity at home. He had inherited a terrible economy from Suharto, with soaring inflation and unemployment. Meanwhile, his promise to tackle corruption rang hollow as charges against Suharto were dropped and several of Habibie’s colleagues were named in a banking scandal. As the 1999 presidential elections approached and Habibie’s support dropped below 10 per cent, he withdrew from the race.

Habibie spent much of his retirement in Germany. He wrote an account of his presidency entitled Decisive Moments and invested in a popular tourist resort, Batam Island. When his wife died in 2010, he published a book about their relationship in her honour. ( Habibie and Ainun was subsequently made into a film series.)

Whether the changes that began in Indonesia under Habibie can be attributed to his personal conviction or to external pressures is unclear, but there’s little doubt that Habibie was a better president than Suharto.

On a wreath for his late friend, Gusmao, the man Habibie made president of newly independent Timor-Leste, declared: “Timorese people will remember you forever.”

Habibie is survived by two sons.

BJ Habibie, former Indonesian president, born 25 June 1936, died 11 September 2019

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B.J. Habibie Biography

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biographies of legends

Monday 11 March 2013

Biography (complete) bj habibie: mr. technology and democracy indonesia.

"I have some figures roomates compare the cost of one kilo of airplane Compared to one kilo of rice. One kilo of airplane costs thirty thousand U.S. dollars and one kilo of rice is seven cents. And if you want to pay for your one kilo of high-tech products with a kilo of rice, I do not think we have enough. "(Source: BBC: BJ Habibie Profile -1998 .)

Special Notes BJ Habibie

"Carry only your job well, I pray that Allah SWT is always protected Habibie in performing the task. We will meet in the inner course, "answered Soeharto refused to meet with Habibie in a phone call on June 9, 1998. (Habibie: Decisive Moments. Pages 293)

• The idea of ​​building the aircraft industry nationwide as spearhead strategic industry
• The idea of ​​establishing a Center for Research and Development of Science and Technology (Puspitek)
• The idea of ​​the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Science of Technology (BPPT)

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Biography of BJ Habibie: the Visionary Father of Indonesian Technology

Mudalovers must be familiar with the figure of BJ Habibie. Many have written biographies of BJ Habibie and even filmed his life story. He is an extraordinary inspirational figure for the Indonesian people.

BJ Habibie’s profile

Name: Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie Popular Call: BJ Habibie Wife: Hasri Ainun Besari Place, Date, Birth: Pare-pare, 25 June 1936 Presidential Term: 21 May 1998 Until 20 October 1999 Education History: SMAK Dago, Bandung, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), RWTH Aachen Names of children: Ilham Akbar, Thareq Kemal

His full name is Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. He was born in Pare-Pare City, South Sulawesi, on June 25 1936. Before becoming an influential person for the Indonesian nation, BJ Habibie studied at SMAK Dago, Bandung, in 1954 and continued to college at the Institute of Technology. Bandung (ITB).

Because of his cleverness and intelligence, BJ Habibie finally continued his studies in Germany with his other friends. Unlike his friends who used scholarships to study in Germany, BJ Habibie used funds from his mother, RA Tuti Marini Puspowardojo.

His decision to study in Germany was due to Bung Karno’s advice about the importance of mastering national technology, namely maritime technology and aerospace technology when Indonesia was still developing at that time.

BJ Habibie finally chose the Aeronautical Engineering major, specializing in Aircraft Construction at the Rhein Westfalen Aachen Technische Hochschule, Germany in 1955.

From here BJ Habibie learned to master technology and became an aircraft expert who first created an aircraft in Indonesia. So it is not surprising that he is called the father of Indonesian technology because of his extraordinary work.

There are many lessons we can take from the life story or biography of BJ Habibie. Even though BJ Habibie’s presidential term was very short, he was one of the nation’s figures who brought national spirit and change to the Indonesian nation intellectually.

So that Mudalovers can learn lessons and be inspired by his life story, let’s get to know BJ Habibie from his short biography below.

BJ Habibie’s Childhood

BJ Habibie’s childhood was in Pare-pare, South Sulawesi with his father and mother and seven siblings. Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie is BJ Habibie’s father who is an agricultural expert from Gorontalo and his mother is RA Tuti Marini Puspowardojo who is an eye specialist from Yogyakarta.

Of eight children, BJ Habibie was the fourth child to grow up in a religious family. BJ Habibie’s childhood was very familiar with his father’s reading of the Koran which made him calm. That is why at the age of 3 years, BJ Habibie was already fluent in reading the Koran. BJ Habibie has been known as an intelligent child since his childhood.

BJ Habibie was abandoned by his father who died when he was very young, namely 14 years. From there the mother had to fight alone to continue living together with her eight children. Since his father left, BJ Habibie’s family finally moved to Bandung.

BJ Habibie’s Education Period

Because he is known as an intellectual, it would be incomplete if you did not know BJ Habibie’s educational background. Because BJ Habibie has grown into an intelligent child since childhood, he is also an intelligent student at school.

SMAK Dago Bandung is the school where BJ Habibie received his education until he continued on to college at ITB, which at that time was still called the University of Indonesia Bandung. BJ Habibie only studied for a year at ITB then continued his studies in Germany for 10 years.

When Habibie was still an ITB student, President Soekarno’s government was aggressively funding the nation’s children to study and study abroad. Of the hundreds of students who received scholarships and went to Germany, BJ Habibie was in the second group who went to Germany without a scholarship from the state in 1955.

It was his mother who paid for BJ Habibie to study at the Aeronautical Engineering Department specializing in Aircraft Construction at the Rhein Westfalen Aachen Technische Hochschule, Germany.

Gaining knowledge abroad was not short and easy. For many years BJ Habibie studied at RWTH Aachen while working practically. The motivation he initially brought to study in Germany was that BJ Habibie was interested in building commercial aircraft according to Soekarno’s ideas.

Finally, the PT PAL company emerged, namely IPTN at that time. Apart from that, BJ Habibie’s biggest motivation for success also came from his mother, who had struggled to pay for his education and life abroad, which was not cheap.

In 1960 BJ Habibie successfully completed his studies for his Ing Diploma at the Technische Hochschule with a perfect distinction or Cum Laude with an average score of 9.5. This engineer’s degree allowed him to work at the Talbot Firm, the Railway Industry in Germany.

The company really needed a Wagon to transport light goods in large quantities. BJ Habibie also made the construction tools needed for the German Railway Industry wagon by making airplane wings. The method also produced results and really helped the company’s needs.

BJ Habibie’s biography regarding his educational history continues because he continued his doctoral degree in Germany, namely Technische Hochschule Die Fakultät de Fuer Maschinenwesen Aachen.

While studying for his doctorate, in 1962 BJ Habibie finally married Hasri Ainun and brought him to Germany. His life is said to be very simple and difficult because he has to save money and work late at night.

Even though BJ Habibie also had to continue studying and completing his coursework. Ainun, his wife, also lives simply to save money by queuing to wash clothes in public places.

BJ Habibie’s efforts and hard work finally yielded results where he graduated with an Ingenieur Doctorate degree at the Technische Hochschule Die Fakultät de Fuer Maschinenwesen with the title of Cum Laude or Very Perfect with an average score of 10. The figure of BJ Habibie is indeed a very genius expert.

BJ Habibie, Nicknamed the Father of Indonesian Technology

Another interesting story from BJ Habibie’s biography is his genius in discovering the Crack theory ( crack propagation theory)  which was eventually named the Habibie Factor formula. The Habibie Factor Formula is a formula used to calculate the atomic fracture of an airplane.

With proper calculations, the aircraft material can be stronger and more precise. This theory created by BJ Habibie was very important because at that time there were still many plane crashes caused by structural failure.

This formula is what gives BJ Habibie the nickname Mr Crack. Because of his genius, BJ Habibie also received the title of Honorary Professor or Professor from ITB and the high award of Ganesha Praja Manggala.

Apart from coming from within the country, recognition from international institutions, such as  Gesellschaft Luft und Raumfahrt  (aeronautical institute in Germany),  The Royal Aeronautical Society London England, The Academie Nationale  de l’Air et de l’Espace France , The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Sweden,  and The US Academy of Engineering, United States .

BJ Habibie even received prestigious awards that were almost equivalent to the Nobel Prize, namely the Edward Warner Award and the Von Karman Award. This revolutionary figure was admired by many people, even when BJ Habibie visited Germany he never escaped the news.

Before taking part in the world of politics, BJ Habibie was first known as a genius aircraft technology expert in Indonesia. In 1973 Soeharto sent Ibnu Sutowo to go to Germany and meet BJ Habibie so that he could have a career in his homeland. So a year after Ibnu Sutowo’s arrival, BJ Habibie returned to Indonesia and started his career at the Nurtanio Aircraft Industry Institute (LIPNUR) as a leader.

In 1976 this company changed to Nurtanio Aircraft Industry (IPTN) until in 2000 it changed again to PT Dirgantara Indonesia. In 1978, Soeharto also appointed BJ Habibie to serve as Minister of State for Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia and he held this position for 20 years. Referring to the book  Indonesia’s Industrial Transformation  in 1997, BJ Habibie used a unique approach when creating the aircraft industry in Indonesia.

IPTN under the control of BJ Habibie succeeded in developing the technology for a number of aircraft, namely the CN235, N250 and N2130. BJ Habibie’s most legendary work is N250 or also known as Gatotkaca, which was first broadcast in 1995.

Gatotkaca is the only turboprop aircraft that uses  fly by wire technology  created by BJ Habibie. Because of his extraordinary work for Indonesian technology, not long after he died, Jokowi stated that BJ Habibie was the father of Indonesian technology and a revolutionary statesman.

BJ Habibie’s Political Career

BJ Habibie’s political career began when he returned to Indonesia in 1974 on Suharto’s orders. Starting in 1978 BJ Habibie was appointed Minister of Research and Technology for 10 decades until March 1998 during the reign of President Soeharto. Apart from that, he also led a state-owned strategic industrial company for 10 years.

Starting in 1998, precisely on March 14, BJ Habibie was appointed as the 7th Vice President accompanying Suharto in the VII Development Cabinet until May 21 1998 when Soeharto stepped down from his presidential position. Habibie’s work as vice president was quite short, which you can read in the book The Nation’s Leader Series – BJ Habibie, the Last Vice President of the New Order.

After Suharto’s resignation, BJ Habibie was appointed as the 3rd President of Indonesia at the age of 62 with a short term of office, namely 1 May 1998 to 20 October 1999.

When BJ Habibie served as president, on August 30 1999 Indonesia lost East Timor from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and became a separate country. However, BJ Habibie succeeded in resolving the problem peacefully by holding an opinion poll for the people of East Timor to choose independence or remaining part of Indonesia. This decision was controversial among Indonesian experts and politicians.

President BJ Habibie’s term of office

Even though his tenure as President of the Republic of Indonesia was short, his work cannot be underestimated. After the fall of Soeharto, Indonesia experienced an economic crisis and riots occurred everywhere.

It could be said that he inherited his position when conditions in Indonesia were chaotic and worrying, where many regions and regions wanted to break away from Indonesia. In the Reformation Era with instability and disintegration after the May 1998 riots in several regions in Indonesia, BJ Habibie had to oversee all the chaos.

BJ Habibie was ready to form a new cabinet with important roles to restore support from international monetary funds and the donor country community to restore the Indonesian economy at that time. BJ Habibie also freed several Suharto era political prisoners and reduced controls on freedom of expression and organizational activities.

That’s what makes this figure special, he continues to strive to rebuild the Indonesian nation for the better. Several forms of policies and decisions made by BJ Habibie are very valuable for the Indonesian nation, namely the Law on Regional Autonomy, the Anti-Monopoly Law (Fair Competition Law), and freeing its people to participate in many political parties.

BJ Habibie also succeeded in increasing the dollar exchange rate to the Indonesian rupiah from 10 thousand rupiah to 15 thousand rupiah during the economic crisis before 1998. Apart from that, he also succeeded in completing the liquidation of banks which were having problems at that time due to the chaotic economic conditions in Indonesia.

In 1999 BJ Habibie was forced to resign because his accountability was not accepted at the MPR general session regarding the separation of East Timor from the Republic of Indonesia. KH Abdurrahman Wahid finally succeeded him as the 4th President of the Republic of Indonesia.

BJ Habibie became an ordinary citizen and returned to live in Germany, although he occasionally visited Indonesia.

However, since the SBY administration, BJ Habibie has been active again in Indonesia as an advisor to the democratic process in Indonesia in the organization he created, namely the Habibie Center. Apart from that, BJ Habibie is also Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Golkar Party.

BJ Habibie’s Love Story

Discussing BJ Habibie’s biography cannot be separated from his very touching love story with his wife. BJ Habibie once revealed that Mrs. Ainun was his eyes through which he could see life.

Mudalovers can also find the complete story of Hasri Ainus Habibie as an irreplaceable figure in BJ Habibie’s life in the book BJ Habibie-Bahan Habibie’s Soul.

Mrs. Ainun was a source of love for BJ Habibie’s life when it was difficult and until BJ Habibie was well established. 48 The age of marriage until BJ Habibie’s mother Ainun died, they were always together. Mrs. Ainun always faithfully accompanied BJ Habibie and accompanied him patiently and lovingly.

On May 22 2010, BJ Habibie lost Hasri Ainun, his beloved wife, who died of ovarian cancer. BJ Habibie never previously knew that his wife was suffering from ovarian cancer because Mrs. Ainun never complained to him once.

BJ Habibie only found out 3 days before Ainun’s mother left, that’s when he felt hurt. BJ Habibie also wrote a book entitled  Habibie & Ainun,  323 pages thick, as a form of his love for his late wife.

This book was then adapted to the big screen with the same film title as the book title. The biographical film BJ Habibie was broadcast in Indonesia in December 2012 with the story of his visionary figure and his romantic love story with Mrs. Ainun.

The film was directed by Hanung Bramantyo and Faozan Rizal and starred by Reza Rahardian and Bunga Citra Lestari which successfully attracted the attention of the Indonesian people as many as 4.5 million viewers. The following are recommendations for books in the Mudabicara collection that Mudalovers can read about the extraordinary romance of BJ Habibie and Ibu Ainun.

So, that’s  the biography of BJ Habibie  that Mudalovers can know to emulate BJ Habibie’s inspiring stories. His passing on September 11 2019 made many Indonesians lose his extraordinary figure.

BJ Habibie is a figure who contributed to the history of the Indonesian nation. That is why there are many things that can be learned from his genius ideas and stories of struggle. Mudalovers friends can visit the Mudabicara website at  Mudabicara.com to see a collection of articles about various figures. Have a good study.

Former president B.J. Habibie was the best research and technology minister Indonesia ever had

Former President of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Principal Scientist, Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology

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Sangkot Marzuki is a co-founder of The Conversation Indonesia and serves in the Governing Board.

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Former Indonesian president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who passed away on Wednesday in Jakarta at the age of 83, ushered in democratic reforms in his short period as president. But his longest-serving role was as minister of research and technology. There is no doubt the brilliant aircraft engineer was the best research minister Indonesia ever had.

Appointed minister of research and technology in 1978, Habibie had a clear strategy for how Indonesia should use science and technology to develop the nation. During his 20-year tenure as minister, he developed high-technology industries, such as aircraft manufacturing, supported science-driven biotechnology research (my area of work), sponsored thousands of young people for science fellowships abroad, and used his power to cut the stifling red tape that hampers scientific research.

He has inspired generations of Indonesians. Through his work, he changed many lives, including mine.

Biotechnology as a national priority

In 1990, I was leading a research lab on molecular biology at Monash University in Melbourne when a fax with a letterhead of Indonesia’s coat of arms, the mythical Garuda bird, came in. It was from Habibie. He asked me to return home to help develop research in biotechnology.

In those days it was becoming clear, with the advances in molecular biology such as the development of DNA sequencing and cloning, that biotechnology would be the basis of an industrial revolution in medicine, agriculture and many other things.

Habibie, who was developing Indonesia’s aircraft industries at the time, noticed the important scientific revolution that was happening in the field of molecular biology, one far from his own. This is a testament to his visionary thinking as the country’s minister of research and technology.

Read more: B.J. Habibie: Indonesia's president and brilliant engineer who pioneered the country's aircraft industry with passion

It was not an easy decision to return to Indonesia. I had been doing research in Australia for 20 years, producing groundbreaking findings on mitochondrial DNA mutations related to disease and ageing. I had Indonesian PhD students working at my lab in Melbourne, and I believed I could serve the country better through my work there.

Sitting in the minister’s office in Jakarta with all the models of aeroplanes on the table, he didn’t need me to tell him that biotechnology was the future. He understood it as much as I did.

I reminded him that the then defunct Research Laboratory for Pathology and Bacteriology, where Christiaan Eijkman worked on his Nobel Prize-winning findings on the relationship between vitamin B1 deficiency and beri-beri, was about to celebrate its 100-year anniversary.

I hadn’t finished my sentence suggesting reopening the institute, when he put his fist on the table and exclaimed: “That’s the way to do it. We should revive the institute!”

That immediate chemistry that we had and the challenge to reopen an institute that has a long historical legacy convinced me to return home. I led the institute for 22 years until 2014, and it has contributed to the development of science in the areas of human genetics, infectious diseases and genetic biodiversity.

The Eijkman Institute is only one of three biotechnology research centres he established. One that focused on agriculture was placed under the research centre at the Agriculture Ministry, and one that linked directly to industries was established under the Centre for Research, Science and Technology (Puspiptek).

Habibie’s support for biotechnology research spurred the opening of biotechnology courses in Indonesian universities.

He also established the Centre for Research, Science and Technology (Puspiptek), a science park that serves as a hub for scientific research. This visionary initiative inspired countries like Thailand and Malaysia to do the same, contributing to the development of science and research in the region.

Ahead of his time

Habibie was frequently misunderstood, but it was because he was too far ahead of his time in terms of his vision compared to the rest of Indonesia.

He was criticised when he sent young Indonesians, from high school graduates to postdoctoral researchers, on scientific fellowships abroad. Now, it’s common knowledge that exposure to international research will enrich the nation. But back during his time as minister of research, people questioned this program.

When we revived the Eijkman Institute, people also criticised naming the research centre after a Dutch scientist. But he understood that naming it after the Nobel-prize-winning scientist was important to send a signal to the world that Indonesia was determined to build on the legacy of Eijkman’s important work.

Habibie overcame his detractors by being consistent in his work to advance Indonesia’s research and technology sector. He was not afraid to cut red tape to allow research institutes that he established to develop without the bureaucratic hurdles that government agencies had to go through.

Inspiration for the young generation of scientists

As Indonesians receive the news of Habibie’s passing, homage for the beloved former president has flooded our social media timelines. I received one from Sudirman Nasir, a talented public health researcher from South Sulawesi, where Habibie also originated. In his message, Sudirman shared that as a child whenever an aeroplane flew over his small town, he and his friends would run and point to the aeroplane shouting that it’s Habibie’s plane.

Read more: As Indonesia marks 70 years of independence, young scientists look ahead to the 100th

Sudirman became one of the authors of the book Science 45: An Indonesian Science Agenda Towards a Century of Independence, produced by the Young Indonesia Academy of Science. Habibie hosted the launch of this book at his home in 2015. Sudirman wrote that, at the time, he could not believe his eyes seeing his idol in front of him. Such is the inspiration Habibie generates in others.

With limited resources but a clear vision, Habibie had dared to dream big and introduced innovative approaches to support the research sector. Now it’s up to us to keep his legacies alive.

The Indonesian Academy of Sciences supports The Conversation Indonesia as host partner.

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