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The kindness of BJ Habibie
Not knowing Habibie well at that point, I was astonished (and delighted) at his magnanimousness toward someone he knew not at all, and his openness to and tolerance of my often-fumbling questions.
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Indonesian President B.J. Habibie and his wife, Hasri Ainun wave to journalists outside the Parliament building in Jakarta 01 October 1999 shortly after attending a swearing in ceremony for new members of Parliament. (AFP/Str)
I
first laid eyes upon Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie at a function to which I had been invited by Dewi Fortuna Anwar; the professor was planning to use the opportunity to introduce me to the great man, who passed away on Sept. 11. As expected, the planned short exhortatory address of the former Indonesian president went on and on, and I was forced to leave the occasion, Habibie unmet, as unobtrusively as possible to keep a later appointment on the other side of Jakarta.
When I finally met Habibie a little time later at his Munich residence, Habibie took impish delight in telling me that he had indeed noticed my abrupt and departure from the function at the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI). He teased me further when he began our interview by launching into a 30-minute disquisition on the problem of airframe stress cracking, and how he had solved the problem mathematically in the development of the Airbus.
During the interview proper, he could not have been kinder or more accommodating; we spent the rest of the day in earnest (me) and generous (Habibie) discussion of whatever I wanted to talk about, the whole conducted in an eclectic mixture of English, Dutch and Indonesian (but not his fluent German, since he knew I spoke it not).
Not knowing Habibie well at that point, I was astonished (and delighted) at his magnanimousness toward someone he knew not at all, and his openness to and tolerance of my often-fumbling questions. My appreciation only grew with subsequent meetings in Kakerbeck near Hamburg and at his Jakarta home. Once my wife and I visited Habibie and his wife Ainun at Kakerbeck during Ramadan fasting month. For that reason, I had expected that my wife and I would eat alone. Habibie would have none of it. He insisted on taking us to a nearby restaurant for lunch, and eating with us.
The Prophet, he explained, valued hospitality toward guests above following the prescription to fast; so he would make good his fast at a later time when guests would not be inconvenienced.
During our meetings we had many discussions about religion, and I was again struck by Habibie’s humane tolerance and kindness to the other. He saw many commonalities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism; they were, as he saw it, worthy components of the Abrahamic religions which emphasized both the majesty of God and the social obligations incumbent upon their followers.
Habibie’s generosity of soul was matched by that of his beloved Ainun. On one occasion, worried what the German sun was doing to my freckled-faced and (formerly) red-haired wife, Ainun fetched a broad-brimmed hat for her, and insisted that she keep it.
