Do you know about HABIBIE?
Yeah,
Habibie is the smartest people in Indonesia, i think, because he could
change the economy of Indonesia. Then, he made his own plane. He has
many brilliant ideas and he can make it happen. So if you want to know
more about Habibie, let's check my 1st BOX and don't forget to pay
attention when you open it... :)
An aeronautical engineer who became Indonesia'sminister of technical development and eventually its president, B.J. Habibie (born 1936) was a lifelong devotee of Indonesian dictator Suharto. When student riots and economic turmoil forced Suharto from office, he named Habibie as his successor.
Known as a
big-government free-spender and a proponent of bizarre economic
theories, Habibie seemed an unlikely candidate to bail out Indonesia
from its severe economic crisis of the late 1990s. He was closely
identified with Suharto's
corrupt policies and distrusted by students, the military, and foreign
investors. Yet he instituted reforms and steered the country toward free
elections, remaining in power longer than most observers expected.
Father Figure
Bacharuddin
Jusuf Habibie was born on June 25, 1936 in the sleepy seaside town of
Pare Pare in the Indonesian state of South Sulawesi. The fourth of eight
children, he was nicknamed "Rudy" at an early age. His father, Alwi
Abdul Jalil Habibie, was a government agricultural official who promoted
the cultivation of cloves and peanuts. His grandfather was a Muslim leader and an affluent landowner.
As
a child Habibie liked swimming, reading, singing, riding his father's
racehorses, and building model airplanes. In 1950, when Rudy was 13, his
father suffered a heart attack and died. Suharto, then a young military
officer billeted across the street, was present at his father's deathbed
and became Habibie's protector and substitute father. Habibie later
wrote of Suharto: "I regarded him as an idol, who could serve as an
example for all people … a young, taciturn
brigade commander, with great humane feelings, and a fierce fighting
spirit." Suharto's autobiography said Habibie "regards me as his own
parent. He always asks for my guidance and takes down notes on
philosophy."
Habibie's interest in building model planes continued
while he excelled in science and mathematics at the Bandung Institute
of Technology. His mother, R.A. Tuti Marini Habibie, arranged for him to
continue his studies in Germany. At the Technische Hochschule of Aachen, Habibie studied aircraft construction engineering.
In
1962, on a visit home to Indonesia, he married H. Hasri Ainun Besari, a
doctor. They had two children, Ilham Akbar and Thareq Kemal, both born
in Germany. While Habibie was abroad, Suharto, who had become a general,
succeeded General Sukarno as Indonesia's ruler in 1966.
After
graduating with a doctoral degree from the Aachen Institute in 1965,
Habibie joined the aircraft manufacturing firm
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Bluhm, rising to the rank of vice-president. As a
research scientist and aeronautical engineer, he helped design several
planes, including the DO-31, an innovative vertical takeoff and landing
craft. He specialized in solutions for aircraft cracking, gaining the
nickname "Mr. Crack" as one of the first scientists to calculate the
dynamics of random crack propagation. He also became involved in
international aircraft marketing activities and NATO's defense and
economic development.
Indonesia's Technology Czar
In
1974, Suharto asked Habibie to return to Indonesia to help establish an
industrial base. Habibie jump-started an aircraft construction industry
and a state airline company. Soon he became Suharto's chief advisor for
high-technology development. Habibie exploited the relationships he had
developed in Germany and NATO to engineer a myriad of controversial deals involving aircraft, ships, heavy industry, and economic development.
As minister of research and technology, Habibie promoted the importation of high-tech goods and services. He liked to "leapfrog"
over low-skill industries and move straight into high-tech ventures,
spurning the basic development which might have brought needed
employment to Indonesia's low-skilled masses. Habibie spent billions in
public money on his strategic companies. His pet project was a national
airplane, the propeller-driven N-250. Its producer was IPTN, a state company whose vice-president was Habibie's son. The national airplane venture consumed $2 billion in public funds, diverted from a project to save Indonesian forests.
Habibie often used his influence with Suharto to broker
favorable deals for his family companies. For example, he pressured
Merpati Airlines to buy 16 of IPTN's CN-235 airplanes, which were so
poorly built they could fly for only an hour with a full load. Never
popular with the military, Habibie angered officials by buying 100
German naval vessels without consulting top brass; the ships needed $1
billion in repairs.
For two decades, Habibie was a top insider in
Suharto's corrupt, nepotistic regime. Like Suharto, whose family
controlled much of Indonesia's economy, Habibie's relatives had their
own business monopolies, often in partnership with Suharto's children.
According to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Trudy Rubin, "The
state set up Habibie's 'strategic industries' in fields such as steel,
shipbuilding and, especially, aircraft manufacture. His relatives were
all involved as middlemen, agents, and supp liers." Habibie's family
came to control two conglomerates-the Timsco Group, named after his
brother Timmy, and the Repindo Panca Group, headed by his second son, Tareq Kamal Habibie. The conglomerate's 66 companies benefited from lucrative government contracts awarded by minister Habibie.
Habibie
was widely known as a free-spending eccentric and an advocate of
expensive government programs. His high-tech ventures failed to
strengthen Indonesia's economy. Many of his projects lost millions of
dollars. A relentless self-promoter, Habibie was known for talking
endlessly in shrill tones while gesturing wildly.
When he visited Tokyo to talk to Japanese bankers about refinancing
Indonesia's $80 billion debt, he lectured them for two hours about what
was wrong with the Japanese economy and came home empty-handed.
A small, wiry
man, Habibie enjoyed classical music, motorcycle riding and swimming in
his pool at his home on Jalan Cibubur. A devout Muslim, he founded the
Indonesian Association of Muslim Intellectuals in 1990.
Suharto's Man
Throughout
his long tenure as technology minister, Habibie remained slavishly
loyal to Suharto, and Suharto considered him his most reliable
supporter. Habibie told Newsweekthat Suharto was his "close friend" who
"treated me like his own brother." Habibie often called the dictator
"SGS," for "Super-Genius Suharto."
Eventually, Suharto's policies brought Indonesia's economy to the brink
of disaster. In March 1998, as student demonstrations and civil unrest
increased in intensity, Suharto installed Habibie as vice-president. As
the economy collapsed, bloody student riots led to increasing calls from
international allies for Suharto's resignation. Hundreds died in the
civil unrest that finally forced Suharto from office in May 1998. Before
he left the presidential palace, Suharto installed Habibie as his
hand-picked successor.
The appointment of Habibie to head the troubled country seemed to appease
no one. Protesters saw him as firmly tied to Suharto's system. Even
after Suharto stepped down, the general's family members still
controlled commerce and industry in the country. Foreign investors
worried that Habibie's free-spending policies would exacerbate
Indonesia's problems. The military distrusted him because, unlike
previous Indonesian presidents, Habibie did not rise through their
ranks.
On taking power, Habibie tried to distance himself somewhat
from his lifelong idol. He pledged to build "a clean government, free
from inefficiency, corruption, collusion, and nepotism."
Soon after, Habibie's brother resigned from his leadership of an
industrial development authority. He also freed high-profile political
prisoners; lifted controls on the press, political parties and labor
unions, and pledged negotiations to end the long conflict in the
Indonesian state of East Timor.
Most
observers doubted he could retain his power for several reasons. His
reputation for wild spending came at a time when the failing Indonesian
economy needed a bailout. The bankrupt Indonesian currency, the rupiah,
fell in value by 36 percent when Habibie took office. Most of the
country identified him closely with Suharto's regime and its policies,
which had brought unbearable hyper-inflation and food lines.
"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," observed Time magazine. "And Habibie … 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 … "
Many foreign investors found a Habibie presidency frightening.
One reason was Habibie's advocacy of a strange "zig-zag theory" of
economics. He believed that cutting interest rates, then doubling them,
then slashing them again, would reduce inflation. Critics scoffed at his
abilities. "He is a clown, a joker,
an entertainer," said Jusuf Wanandi, director of the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. Yet Habibie managed to
consolidate his control over the country, primarily because the
opposition was fragmented and frequently squabbling. The military,
involved in government at every level, was deeply divided. Never modest,
Habibie told Time: "There are two ways of making history: from within the elite-or from the outside. Being inside doesn't mean you're a puppet."
As Habibie maintained a grip on power, the economic decline of his country worsened, with one-fifth of the work force unemployed by the end of 1998. Unrest continued, and there were reports of the torture of dissidents
by the military and new assaults on rebel sympathizers in East Timor.
During renewed demonstrations by student protesters against the
government in November 1998, 16 people died. Habibie enraged students by
arresting a small group of dissidents and blaming them for provoking
soldiers. Protesters demanded that Habibie step down. The armed forces
insisted only rubber bullets and blanks had been used against
protesters, but it was discovered that at least one student had been
killed by live ammunition, a "dum-dum" bullet outlawed under the Geneva
Convention's international rules of warfare. The military then tried to
appease the protesters by announcing prosecutions of 163 soldiers and
police. Habibie tried to downplay the conflict. "Our society still has not had the chance to live under the rule of law," Habibie told Newsweek. "The police do not understand the limits, though they are learning."
Renewed
hostilities by Islamic militants against Indonesia's ethnic Chinese
Christian minority raised questions about Habibie's goals. His religious
supporters dreamed of him instituting a fundamentalist Muslim state.
But Habibie told Newsweek: "The burning of churches and mosques
is a criminal act we all condemn. … As a religious and intellectual man,
I will be among the first who will fight against any attempt to make
this country a religious state." Asked about Chinese Indonesians who
feared an Islamic wave of repression,
Habibie replied: "I wish we could change that like turning off the
light. But it's not that easy.… The Chinese, I love them as I love the
others. I only hate criminals."
Against all odds, Habibie retained
power. He vowed to continue investigating Suharto and his dealings. He
also promised to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in the
spring and summer of 1999. A popular Indonesian magazine, Tempo, showed only seven percent of those polled would vote for Habibie.
Displaying
for the world his high self-regard, Habibie opened his own web site on
the Internet, including an extensive list of awards and personal
achievements. In a fawning account posted on the web site, B.J. Habibie: His Life and Career,
biographer A. Makmur Makka wrote: "He is the idol and the dream of all
parents, who wish their offspring to become another Habibie. … He is an
intelligent person, even a genius, and out of the 190 million
inhabitants, there is only one B.J. Habibie." Makka also wrote: "B.J.
Habibie seemed to possess supernatural power, which made him succeed in
everything he did."
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