Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie  pronunciation  FREng (born 25 June 1936) is an Indonesian engineer who was President of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. He succeeded Suharto, who resigned in 1998. His presidency is seen as a transition to the post-Suharto era. Upon becoming president, he liberalised Indonesia's press and political party laws, and held an early democratic election in 1999, which resulted in the end of his presidency. His presidency was the third, and the shortest, after independence.