The life and legacy of BJ Habibie

Passionate devotion: With his beloved wife Ainun, who died in 2010.

HE was a quintessential product of Suharto’s “New Order”. He had been a loyal two decade-long Cabinet minister and a much promoted, admired and protected protégé.

Nonetheless, from May 1998 for 17 intense months, as Indonesia crumpled under the onslaught of the Asian Financial Crisis and political turmoil, Bacharuddin Jusuf (or BJ) Habibie as the newly sworn-in President blithely dismantled his mentor’s authoritarian legacy.