AFP, Jakarta :
Former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie, who ushered in an era of democratic reforms after the downfall of long-time dictator Suharto, died on Wednesday at the age of 83 in Jakarta, his family and officials said.
Habibie died at a military hospital in the capital after suffering from heart failure.
In a televised speech announcing Habibie’s death, president Joko Widodo called the former aircraft engineer and politician a “world-class scientist” and “the father of Indonesian technology.”
Habibie was born in June 1936 in a small town in South Sulawesi, and studied aviation and aerospace engineering in Germany and the Netherlands before returning home in the mid-1970s.
Former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie, who ushered in an era of democratic reforms after the downfall of long-time dictator Suharto, died on Wednesday at the age of 83 in Jakarta, his family and officials said.
Habibie died at a military hospital in the capital after suffering from heart failure.
In a televised speech announcing Habibie’s death, president Joko Widodo called the former aircraft engineer and politician a “world-class scientist” and “the father of Indonesian technology.”
Habibie was born in June 1936 in a small town in South Sulawesi, and studied aviation and aerospace engineering in Germany and the Netherlands before returning home in the mid-1970s.
