B. J.

HABIBIE

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie born 25 June 1936 was President of Indonesia from
1998 to 1999. His presidency was the third, and the shortest, after independence.
Habibie was born in Parepare, South Sulawesi Province to Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie
and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo. His father was an agriculturist from Gorontalo
descent and his mother was a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta. His parents
met while studying in Bogor. Habibie's father died when he was 14 years old.
Habibie started a study aviation and aerospace at the University of Delft
(Netherlands) but for political reasons (issue New Guinea) had to continue his study
in Aachen, Germany. In 1960, Habibie received a degree in engineering in Germany,
giving him the title Diplom-Ingenieur. He remained in Germany as a research
assistant under Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut fr Leichtbau, RWTH
Aachen to conduct research for his doctoral degree.
In 1962, Habibie returned to Indonesia for three months on sick leave. During this
time, he was reacquainted with Hasri Ainun, the daughter of R. Mohamad Besari.
Habibie had known Hasri Ainun in childhood, junior high school and in senior high
school at SMA-Kristen, Bandung. The two married on 12 May 1962, returning to
Germany shortly afterwards. Habibie and his wife settled in Aachen for a short
period before moving to Oberforstbach.
In May 1963 they had a son, Ilham Akbar Habibie. When Habibie's minimum wage
salary forced him into part-time work, he found employment with the automotive
marque Talbot, where he became an advisor. Habibie worked on two projects which
received funding from Deutsche Bundesbahn. Due to his work with Makosh, the
head of train constructions offered his position to Habibie upon retirement three
years later, but Habibie refused.

In 1965, Habibie delivered his thesis in aerospace engineering and received the
grade of "very good" for his dissertation, giving him the title Doktor der
Ingenieurwissenschaften. During the same year, he accepted Hans Ebner's offer to
continue his research on Thermoelastisitas and work toward his Habilitation, but he
declined the offer to join RWTH as a professor per se. His thesis about light
construction for supersonic or hypersonic states also attracted offers of employment
from companies such as Boeing and Airbus, which Habibie again declined.
Habibie did accept a position with Messerschmitt-Blkow-Blohm in Hamburg. There,
he developed theories on thermodynamics, construction, and aerodynamics known
as the Habibie Factor, Habibie Theorem, and Habibie Method, respectively. He
worked for Messerschmit on the development of the Airbus A-300B aircraft. In 1974,
he was promoted to vice president of the company. Habibie's time in Europe may
have contributed to his interest in Leica cameras.
In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of Suharto's drive
to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie initially served as a special
assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, the CEO of state oil company Pertamina. Two years later,
in 1976, Habibie was made Chief Executive Officer of the new state-owned
enterprise Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN).[6] (In 1985, PT. Nurtanio
changed its name to Indonesian Aviation Industry and is now known as Indonesian
Aerospace (Dirgantara)).
In 1978, he was appointed as Minister of Resesarch and Technology. He continued
to play an important role in IPTN other "strategic" industries in this post.[6] By the
1980s, IPTN had grown considerably, specializing in the manufacture of helicopters
and small passenger planes; by 1991, Habibie oversaw ten state-owned industries
including ship- and train-building, steel, arms, communications, and energy.[6] A
1993 estimate determined that the estimates used nearly $2 billion a year in state
funding, although the government's opaque accounting practices meant that the
size of the industries was not completely known.
Habibie became a pilot, assisted in his training by A.B. Wolff, former chief of staff of
the Dutch Air Force. In 1995, he flew an N-250 (dubbed Gatotkoco) commuter plane.
In developing Indonesia's aviation industry, he adopted an approach called "Begin
at the End and End at the Beginning".[8] In this method, elements such as basic
research became the last things upon which to focus, whilst actual manufacturing of
the planes was placed as the first objective.
Under Habibie's leadership, IPTN became a manufacturer of aircraft including Puma
helicopters and CASA planes. It pioneered a small passenger airplane, the N-250
Gatokaca, in 1995, but the project was a commercial failure.
Lots of people admire as well as disagree on actions taken by Habibie as some of
them are full with controversies. At every time, the achiever of prestigious award
namely Theodore van Karman Award, back to his habitat in German, he always
become such a news. Habibie was just taken one year attending lecture at ITB
Bandung, 10 years attending lecture and got his aircraft construction doctoral in
German with predicate Summa Cum laude. He then worked at the famous aircraft

industry MBB Gmbh German, before he came back to Indonesia to comply with
President Soehartos request.
Habibie for 20 years positioned as the State Minister of Research and Technology /
Head of BPPT, chaired 10 state enterprises for Strategic Industry, selected by the
Provisional Peoples Consultative Assembly as the Vice President of the Republic of
Indonesia, and taken his oath by Head of the Supreme Court to be a President of the
Republic of Indonesia replacing Soeharto. Soeharto delivered his position as
President to Habibie pursuant to Article 8 of the Constitution of 1945. Until finally he
had to fall because of Timor Timur referendum which choose to be independent. His
responsibility speech was overruled by the Provisional Peoples Consultative
Assembly. He than back to become an ordinary person, and he also went back to
stay in German.
Habibie was married to Hasri Ainun Besari, a medical doctor, from 12 May 1962 until
her death on 22 May 2010. The couple had two sons, Ilham Akbar Habibie and
Thareq Kemal Habibie. B. J. Habibie's brother, Junus Effendi Habibie, was Indonesian
ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. After his wife's death,
Habibie published a book titled Habibie & Ainun which recounts his relationship with
Hasri Ainun from their courtship until her death. The book has been adapted into a
film of the same name which was released on December 20, 2012.

ANDIRA CLARIBEL
X SCIENCE
ENGLISH PAPER