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Biography of B.J Habibie

B.J. Habibie, in full Bacharuddin Jusuf 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.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.