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Unit 5 KH Ahmad Dahlan is My Inspiration

Task 6
Read the text below quickly. When you read, use a pencil to underline any difficult
words but do not use your dictionary.
Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was an Indonesian engineer and politician who was the third pres-
ident of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Habibie was a native of Parepare, in South Sulawesi.
Habibie is an ethnic Gorontalese-Javanese descent from Kabila, Gorontalo and Yogyakarta.
His parents, Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie, an agriculturist of Gorontalese descent, and R. A. Tuti
Marini Puspowardojo, a Javanese noblewoman from Yogyakarta, met while studying in Bogor.
Habibie’s family comes from Kabila, a village now sits in the eastern part of Gorontalo Prov-
ince. He was the fourth of eight children. Habibie’s father died when he was 14 years old.
Habibie went to Delft, the Netherlands, to study aviation and aerospace at the Technische
Hogeschool Delft (Delft University of Technology), but for political reasons (the West New
Guinea dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia), he had to continue his study at the
Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH Aachen University) in Aachen, Germany. In 1960, Ha-
bibie received an engineer’s degree in Germany with the title Diplom-Ingenieur. He remained in
Germany as a research assistant under Hans Ebner at the Lehrstuhl und Institut für 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 Dago
(Dago Christian Senior High School), 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.

In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of his drive to industrialize
and develop the country. Habibie initially served as a special assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, chief
executive officer of the state oil company Pertamina and Chair of Agency for the Assess-
ment and Application of Technology (Indonesian: Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknolo-
gi, BPPT). Two years later, Habibie was made CEO of the new state-owned enterprise Industri
Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio (IPTN; Nurtanio Aircraft Industry), which in 1985 changed its name
to Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (Nusantara Aircraft Industry; also abbreviated as IPTN)
and is known as Indonesian Aerospace (PT. Dirgantara Indonesia) since 2000). In 1978, he was
appointed as State Minister of Research and Technology (Indonesian: Menteri Negara Riset
dan Teknologi, Menristek). He continued to play an important role in IPTN other “strategic”
industries in this post. By the 1980s, IPTN had grown considerably, specializing in the manu-
facture of helicopters and small passenger planes. 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 Gatotkaca, in 1995, but the project was a commercial failure.
In developing Indonesia’s aviation industry, he adopted an approach called “Begin at the End
and End at the Beginning”. 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.

On 21 May 1998, just two months into Habibie’s vice presidency, Suharto announced his
resignation. Habibie, as the Constitution says, succeeded him as president. The following
day, Habibie announced the Development Reform Cabinet, which removed some of the most
controversial ministers in Suharto’s last cabinet while maintaining others - with no major fig-
ures from the opposition. Within days of his appointment, he asked his relatives to resign from
government positions, promised an early election, repealed some legislation, and ordered the
release of political prisoners.

modified from:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._J._Habibie

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