Indonesia bids farewell to the founder of its strategic industries and the pioneer of democratic transformation

Suhaib Jassim-Jakarta

On Wednesday evening, Indonesia invited its third president, Bahruddin Yusuf Habibi, at the age of 83. Television channels have stopped all coverage of the event from the hospital to the family home and the burial.

Habibi is a national consensus figure whose name was linked to democratic transformation in Indonesia 21 years ago, to the extent that he is described as a "father of democracy." In mid-1997, the financial crisis deepened in the country and throughout Asia and led to student mobility that later forced President Muhammad Suharto to He resigned after a 32-year rule and handed over power to Habibi, whom he had chosen as his deputy.

Habibi assumed the presidency from 21 May 1998 to 20 October 1999.

It was a brief period of presidency, but left a huge impact for his successor, and then called his transitional government "government of democratic development", he abolished restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, launching press freedoms and lifting all censorship mechanisms that were imposed on media work through the Ministry of Information throughout Decades ago.

Reform and opening laws
To achieve democratization, Habibi's rule was enacted by the parties law, setting a roadmap for ending the military presence in parliament, establishing local and autonomous governance in the provinces by codifying it, and also enacting an election law, opening the way for multi-partyism that has been absent since the 1950s.

Also under his reign was a law redrawing the membership of parliament and the People's Consultative Assembly, a press law, and another for the Central Bank of Indonesia.

What many forget was that he managed with his team the Asian financial crisis at a time when the value of the rupee reached its lowest level.

He also played a role in preserving the unity of the country, where the people of East Timor were separated from it through a referendum that was supported in August 1999, and shocked Indonesians.

Founder of the aviation industry
Habibi was not military or political like other leaders of the ruling Golkar Party at the time.He had a distinguished scientific background that gave him roles that the Indonesians remember.For two decades before he took office, he was Minister of Research and Technology and Chairman of the Scientific Research and Applications Authority.

He is credited with devising a plan to provide educational opportunities for thousands of young Indonesians in important scientific disciplines.

Habibi led an extensive team in various strategic industries. During his receipt of the Ministry of Research and Technology, he founded the company Inca for the manufacture of trains, the company for the manufacture of ships, the company INTI communications devices, and the company Bindad for the manufacture of weapons and equipment and military vehicles, all of which still exist and productive Aircraft in the city of Bandung, which has achieved a number of industrial achievements, by manufacturing a number of aircraft and entering the manufacture of parts for aircraft to giant companies.

The late president, born in Bari Bari southwest of Sulawesi island in 1936, was a distinguished student at the Bandung Institute of Technology in West Java.

Scientific Awards
Habibi has received scientific awards in his country and from Britain, Sweden, Germany and the United States, including the Edward Warner Award and the German Tidroi Van Carman Award.

In 1973, former President Suharto asked Habibi to return to his country, and here began his interest in the aviation industry since the establishment and presidency of a newly established government company for the manufacture of aircraft and helicopters in 1976 as the first company of its kind in Southeast Asia.

He knew from an early date that his country, which is the largest archipelago in the world, is on the verge of rapid growth of air transport in two or three decades, and was an accurate estimate and we see it happen today, then pushed the manufacture of small and medium aircraft suitable for transport between the islands.

His son, Ilham Akbar and a generation of engineers, inherited this passion for the aerospace industry. In 2012, he founded a private aircraft company, which began last year to design an aircraft known as the "R80" for a capacity of 80-90 passengers. Which was stalled by the 1997 financial crisis.

The plan is supposed to start producing and selling the aircraft to companies in 2025. The project, which was described as the last of Habibi's projects before his death, seeks to attract foreign investment to accelerate its completion.

Union of Intellectuals
Under General Suharto, who was dependent on the military, the Golkar Party and a wealthy allied alliance, Habibi founded the Indonesian Muslim Intellectual Union (EHMI) in 1990, and was joined by some 20,000 intellectuals, including economists, engineers, writers, writers, jurists and social activists.

Some of its members have played a role in the country's democratic transition, such as Amin Rais, who led the constitutional reform process in the People's Consultative Assembly.

President Habibi withdrew from the political arena at the end of his transitional period in October 1999 due to a rivalry within his party Golkar at the time and after playing his role in the transition period, and did not seek to return to political competition again, which raised his place in the hearts of Indonesians.

He spent the rest of his life working in research through the Habibi Center, which was interested in monitoring democratic political practice and media performance, as well as following several industrial projects.