Satria Robi Trisnanto

Jakarta, December 1, 2015

US History 1302

B.J. HABIBIE: A PROPHET OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL STATE IN INDONESIA

During 1966 1998, Indonesia was experiencing an authoritarian regime New Order
Regime. Presidents words meant everything at that time. The power of the president is absolute.
The most well-known motto of the regime is Five Years Construction. The program of Five Years
Construction is to build Indonesia in every aspect, including high technology. The shifting from
developmental state to technological state is one of the momentous objectives of New Order
Indonesia under Soeharto The president of Indonesia during New Order Regime.
As objective of New Order Regime is to transfer developmental state to technological
state, Soeharto worked very hard to make technological states idea became a reality. Soeharto
gave his trust to B. J. Habibie to become a Minister of Research and Technology. Soeharto
summoned B. J. Habibie who was currently becoming a chief in MBB GmbH one of the
aviation industries in Germany, to go back to Indonesia to carry out Soehartos order to bring
technological states in Indonesia. Habibie played a crucial role as a minister. He was challenged
to embed technology into social-political life.
In order to make Soehartos dream of technological state in Indonesia comes true, there is
an important factor to be fulfilled, which is the capital. Capital is required to support Habibies
vision to transform conventional Indonesia into modern and high-technology nation. Capital
includes not only the money, but also human resources. The best human resources will be
beneficial for Habibies mission, because those best people will work cooperatively with Habibie
to bring Technological state in Indonesia.
A brief story of B.J. Habibie. Bacharudin Jusuf Habibie was born in Pare-Pare, South
Sulawesi on June 25, 1936. He lived with his seven brothers and sister before then they moved to
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Makassar Capital of South Sulawesi. Habibies father passed away when he was thirteen. As a
single parent, his mother took care of him and all of his brothers and sisters alone. Habibie was
sent by his mother to continue his education in Bandung, West Java. He attended the Bandung
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Institute of Technology, one of the prestigious universities in Indonesia right after he graduated
from high school.
In 1955, Habibie went to Germany to continue his study at Technische Hoghschule
Aachen in Aeronautical Engineering. He set off Germany on the recommendation of Ministry of
Education at that time. He earned his Bachelor Degree in five years. In 1965, Habibie pursued
his doctoral degree at the same university. Finally, his doctoral thesis about orthotropic collar

flange was successful. With degree he had earned, Habibie then joined Hamburger Flugzeugbau
(HFB). He was occupied in design project that dealing with Fokker F-28 and Dornier DO-31.
Habibies biggest role was on research of aircraft construction. Habibie spent his time dealing
with mathematical formula in his research laboratory (Amir 2007).
As a result, he invented a mathematical formula called Habibie Factor. It became a
standard for aircraft design in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) projects. By the time,
Habibies career became brighter. He was promoted to higher position after the merging of
Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) and Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (MBB). Now Habibie was
trusted for planning and supervising in major manufacturing plant of MBB, then he also
participated in Airbus A-300B. Habibies formula is used to predict the crack propagation
behavior in aircraft structure at the atomic level. Because of his invention, Habibie was called as
Mr. Crack. Habibie then became the vice president and director of technology application. It
was the first time in history of MBB the highest position granted for foreigner outside Germany

(Amir 2007). Finally, Habibies career in Germany was ended after Soeharto pointed him as
Ministry of Research and Technology in 1974.
During his career in MBB, Habibie had started to cultivate good human resources for
Indonesias development. He was inspired by German experience in rebuilding the country after
World War II. For that reason, Habibie brought some Indonesian engineers to study about
engineering, especially Aeronautical Engineering in Germany. Habibie believed that Indonesia
need to be industrialized in high technology area. Habibies vision brought Indonesia to build
independent aircraft industry called Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) or National
Airplane Industry in Bandung, West Java (Habibie 2006).
The building of aviation industry will bring economic improvement in Indonesia. As
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Indonesia is archipelago nation, air transportation becomes a crucial type of transportation. The
mobility of people from one island to another islands becomes easier and faster. As a result, by
good transportation, economic growth will become a reality because business activities become
easier when there is a good transportation system in Indonesia (Habibie 2006).
Regarding to the importance of air transportation in Indonesia, Habibie and his team in
IPTN built a turboprop airplane that can carry 50 people in order to transport business and other
people in a cheapest way. The turboprop airplane was called N250. This plane was inaugurated
in August 10, 1995. This was the moment when Indonesians were very proud of the first flight of
N250 and witness the flight with full of enthusiasm similarly like Americans cheer Apollos
landing on the moon (Amir, The Technological State in Indonesia 2013). At the same time, N250
airplane was also currently undergoing flight test to get license to fly from Federal Aviation

Agency, USA and Joint Airworthness Agency, Europe (Amir 2007). Role of N250 is not only for
business and air transportation, but also to support Tourism Industries (Habibie 2006).
Habibies involvement in government policies and also in research and development
board highly contributes to Indonesias development and independency. Indonesia grew as a
strong nation in South East Asia. Indonesia had its own transportation industries includes air,
land, and water transportation industries. Indonesia has National Airplane Industry called IPTN
to support air transportation. IPTN became the fastest growing aircraft industries in Asia that
owned and controlled by government. IPTN was expected to become competitive global aircraft
developer that can challenge Euro-American aircraft producers (Amir, The Technological State
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in Indonesia 2013). Indonesia also has Ship Factory called Pabrik Kapal (PAL) to enhanced
water transportation and shipping. Besides transportation Industries, Indonesia dominated South
East Asian countries by having strategic military industry called PT. Pindad. PT. Pindad not only
produces a military equipment and weapon, but also produces machinery for other purposes
(Habibie 2006).
In conclusion, Habibie played crucial part in Indonesias development from conventional
nation into technological nation. Habibie contributes to Indonesias development by preparing
Capital, which was done by preparing professional engineers to join his team under Ministry of
Research and Technology in building National Airplane Industry. National Airplane Industry
under Habibies commands created a turboprop airplane called N250 to ease island-to-island
transportation. Habibie and team had improved Indonesian economy by providing a best solution
in air transportation. In addition, Habibies involvement in government policies and research
activities gave positive impact to the emerging of technological state in Indonesia resulting
development in nations industry and economy.
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References
Amir, Sulfikar. "Symbolic Power in a Technocratic Regime: The Reign of B.J. Habibie
in New Order Indonesia." Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 22 (2007):
83-106.
Amir, Sulfikar. The Technological State in Indonesia. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Habibie, Bacharuddin Jusuf. Detik-Detik yang Menentukan. Jakarta: THC Mandiri,
2006.

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