Fickle fortunes of B.J. Habibie's rise and fall

Fickle fortunes of B.J. Habibie's rise and fall

JAKARTA (JP): B.J. Habibie's unexpected rise to Indonesia's
presidency in 1998 came largely because the lady of fortune was
on his side, at least for most of the time.

But luck ran out on him when the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) rejected his report accounting for his 512 days in
office on Wednesday -- essentially a vote of no confidence in his
leadership. He quickly threw in the towel, removing himself from
the nominations for Indonesia's next president.

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was never really cut out to lead the
world's fourth largest nation. During his brief tenure, he never
looked as comfortable as he was in his previous role as a
scientist and technocrat.

The German-trained aircraft engineer certainly never matched
the stature of his two predecessors, Soeharto and Sukarno, in
vision, authority and charisma which both possessed in abundance.
He also lacked the political skills that were needed to lead a
country as huge and diverse as Indonesia.

But then again, he never really prepared himself for the
nation's top job when circumstances forced him to take the helm
on May 21, 1998, just as the country was having its worst
economic and political crisis.

Two months earlier, Habibie was chosen by Soeharto to become
his vice-president, a largely ceremonial post, to accompany the
strongman throughout his seventh five-year term in office until
2003. But the economic crisis and the ensuing political crisis
became too much for Soeharto and he was forced to resign.

Habibie became president by default. But events over the past
14 months showed that he had stepped into shoes that were far too
big for his feet.

He owed much of the rise in his career in government to
Soeharto. He was brought back from a cozy and high-paying job in
a German aircraft manufacturing company in the 1970s to lead
Indonesia's bid to advance in technology.

Habibie was entrusted by Soeharto with various posts, which
included head of the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT IPTN,
head of the Strategic Industries Board and head of the
Technological Research and Application Agency.

At times, he was seen as Soeharto's pet in the cabinet,
getting virtually any funding he sought for his many costly
projects, including IPTN's ambitious plan to produce Indonesia's
first jet. (The project was shelved after the International
Monetary Fund ordered the government last year to cut further
government funding as part of the agreement for the massive bail
out program).

Born in the remote village of Nepo, Parepare, South Sulawesi,
on June 25, 1936, Habibie -- or Rudy as he is known by intimates
-- was brought up in a strict Muslim family.

The third of four children began reading the Koran as a child.
His religious devotion has continued into adulthood. His father,
Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie from the South Sulawesi town of
Gorontalo, died when Habibie was 13 years old. His Javanese
mother, R.A. Tuti Marini, moved with her children to Bandung,
West Java.

After attending the Bandung Institute of Technology for about
a year in 1954, Habibie won a scholarship from the Ministry of
Education and Culture to study aircraft construction engineering
in Aachen, West Germany, a course he completed in 1960.

Five years later, at his own expense, he obtained an
engineering doctorate from Reinisch-Westfaelische Technische,
Aachen. He passed with honors and a perfect grade point average.

As a research assistant at Aachen's Technische Hocheschule
(1960-1965), Habibie created a design for a deep sea submarine
and a high-pressure temperature room for the Julich Atomic
Center.

With the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HF) aircraft industry, he
designed the world's first aircraft with one consolidated wing,
which remains the only aircraft in the world capable of vertical
landing and takeoff.

He designed more aircraft, including those for satellite and
nuclear projects, when he was an expert staff and later vice
president of the Messerschmidt Boelkow Blohm (MBB), another
aircraft industry which subsequently merged with HF.

He is often nicknamed "Mr. Crack" for his outstanding ability
to calculate random crack propagation down to the very atom.

Habibie is married to Hasri Ainun, a physician by training who
gave up her professional career to raise their two children:
Ilham Akbar, now 36, and Thareq Kamal, 32.

In spite of his impressive education background and working
experience in Germany and in the Indonesian government, he was
ill-equipped to take on the bigger job.

He came into the presidency with the image of a big spender,
but the economic crisis meant that there was little extra money
for him to spend as most of the government budget went toward the
big social safety net projects and the recapitalization of
bankrupt banks.

Habibie also managed to build his own political machine when
he was entrusted to lead the Association of Indonesian Islamic
Intellectuals (ICMI), but the elitist nature of the organization
meant that it had little grassroots support.

If his rise to power was largely made possible because
Soeharto allowed him that luxury, it was this association that
also constantly overshadowed him during his brief term as
president. His remarks that he looked to Soeharto as a father
figure and a political mentor continued to haunt him.

He never overcame the two main drawbacks of his presidency --
lack of legitimacy and of credibility. He was short on political
skills and at times appeared to be naive or a novice in politics.

Habibie did have some opportunities or breaks. Had he used
them, they would not necessarily have sustained him in power, but
they could have made a great impression on the public. They would
have also made him a respected statesman and provided him with a
graceful exit from the political scene.

Had he played his cards right, he would have been remembered
as the man who ushered in a new era of democracy in Indonesia. He
could have pushed for speedier political reforms that would have
left a deep legacy on the people of this country.

Instead, Habibie chose to cut the cake, and eat it too.

A few months into the presidency, he made public his intention
to bid for the presidential election, which he brought forward
from 2003 to this year.

From that moment on, every thing he did, no matter how noble
his intentions, was always seen as part of his campaign to get
elected. Suspicion abounded with virtually his every move.

The general election in June and this week's presidential
election were seen more as an attempt to consolidate power rather
than a genuine attempt to bring democracy to this country.

His administration was also beset by scandals. One involved
his attorney general Andi M. Ghalib who was assigned to
investigate allegations of corruption by Soeharto. Another
involved people in his inner circle who were accused of helping
themselves to a huge sum of money in the Bank Bali scandal.

His decision to stop the corruption investigation against
Soeharto last week only served to confirm suspicions that he
never really had the courage to drag his former mentor to court.

His biggest blunder, perhaps, was his sudden policy reversal
on East Timor.

He either overestimated his own power or underestimated that
of the military, the very force which helped him sustain power.

His decision to allow the self-determination vote in East
Timor went down well with the international community, but it
offended the military, which lost thousands of lives during the
campaign to annex the territory into the republic.

East Timor independence leader Jose Ramos Horta is the only
known public figure, international or local, to have publicly
called Habibie "a great statesman". Habibie could certainly have
qualified for that title if the Aug. 30 ballot in East Timor had
gone smoothly.

Instead, Indonesia's failure to prevent violence in East Timor
brought one international indignity after another, both for the
country and for him personally.

The final insult came when Habibie was forced to announce that
the government would allow a multinational peacekeeping force to
enter East Timor, which, by Indonesia's constitution at least,
was still an Indonesian territory.

He may have removed a "pebble in the shoes", as he often
described the East Timor problem, but a bigger rock had fallen on
him as his detractors at home used the debacle to attack his
political standing in the run up to the presidential election.

To his credit, Habibie oversaw some major changes during his
tenure, some attributed directly to him, others more to
circumstances.

Press freedom, along with freedom of expression, flourished in
Indonesia under his leadership, even though this made him even
more politically vulnerable.

His openness removed some of the myths surrounding the
presidency in Indonesia. In August, he opened the gates of
Merdeka Palace to ordinary Indonesians as he hosted a dinner in
the garden. His biggest contribution, or legacy, may be that he
has changed the image of the presidency in this country.

But Habibie's brief presidency will probably be remembered, at
least for now, more for his failings rather than for his
contribution to building democracy in Indonesia. The MPR, which
voted 355-322 to reject his accountability report on Wednesday,
certainly think so.