ONE of the most impressive leaders in the Southeast Asian region that I have ever met was Bacharuddin Jusuf 'BJ' Habibie of Indonesia. He later became the country's third president in the late 1990s. Habibie was known to be close to the strongman President Suharto, who ruled before him.
A prominent aviation engineer educated in Germany, he is also credited with the democratization of Indonesia during his short stint as president.