In 1998, Habibie had been Vice President to Suharto, the Indonesian President who had initiated and presided over the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor. Between 1978 and 1998, Habibie was a Minister in Suharto's government, and he was closely associated with Suharto from the 1950s.
Together with its adjoining roadway, the bridge was built to supplement a smaller bridge completed in 1960, during the Portuguese colonial era.[4][5] In 2017, the Government of East Timor awarded the contract for the construction of the new bridge, and a new park adjacent to it, to an Indonesian firm Bhakti Timor Karya (BTK), for a total price of just under US$4million. Construction was scheduled to begin on 31 August 2017 and be completed on 31 August 2019.[6]
In July 2019, Xanana Gusmão, the former President and Prime Minister of East Timor, travelled to Jakarta, to invite B. J. Habibie to attend the inauguration of the bridge.[7] Many East Timorese people remember Habibie as the originator of the 1999 referendum that gave East Timor the opportunity to resume its independence.[7][8] The inauguration of the bridge, which was to have been named the Referendum Bridge, was due to take place on about the 20th anniversary of the independence referendum.[9]
Habibie was unable to accept the invitation, as he was being treated at Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital. Because of this, Gusmão could therefore only pass on to him the respect and affection of the people of East Timor.[7]
After returning from Jakarta, Gusmão decided that both the bridge and the park should be named in honour of Habibie.[9] That decision generated some criticism, but Gusmão remained firm in relation to the name.[2] In early August 2019, the builders confirmed that they would complete the project on schedule.[6] On 29 August 2019, the day before the 20th anniversary, another former President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, officially inaugurated the bridge.[10]
During the inauguration ceremony, Basuki read a message from President Widodo saying that Indonesia and East Timor could continue to boost economic cooperation in border areas, such as Mota'ain, Motamasin[de], and Wini, especially in the face of increasingly tough global competition. At the end of the ceremony, Basuki played drums to accompany Ramos-Horta and Indonesian Ambassador Sahat Sitorus[de] in singing the Indonesian song "Bengawan Solo", as a symbol of friendship and collaboration between the two countries.[3] Additionally, Ramos-Horta drove a car across the bridge, with Basuki, the East Timorese Foreign Minister, Dionísio Babo Soares, and the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, as his passengers.[13]
Basuki planned to report to Habibie about the construction of the bridge. However, Habibie died at the hospital on 11 September 2019, before Basuki could convey his message.[14] In the aftermath of Habibie's death, a video of Gusmão's July visit with Habibie in the hospital circulated on social media, and was viewed more than one million times.[15][16] However, not every observer shared Gusmão's views on Habibie's legacy to East Timor. One Australian journalist wrote:
"Habibie's bridge is brochure-perfect brilliant, still with its sails up from the [inauguration] ceremony, and no one seems to find it odd that a shiny new symbol of growing Timor-Leste is named for the anti-independence confidante of the dictator responsible for the invasion."[5]
The "dictator" to whom the journalist was referring in this passage was Suharto, President of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. He was the President who initiated and presided over the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, and Indonesia's consequent occupation of East Timor from 1975 until he was forced to resign in 1998.[17]
Side view of the bridge in 2023
Suharto and Habibie were closely associated with each other from the early 1950s, when Suharto, then a young military officer, came to know the Habibie family well. In 1978, Suharto appointed Habibie as State Minister of Research and Technology. Habibie, who flattered Suharto by calling him "SGS" (short for Super Genius Suharto), and deferred to Suharto's family, served continuously in that position until 1998, when Suharto selected him to be his Vice President. Soon afterwards, Suharto resigned from the presidency, and Habibie replaced him. Habibie was opposed to independence for East Timor, but in 1999 decided to hold a referendum to determine the question of East Timor's independence. After the East Timorese people overwhelmingly voted for independence, Habibie allowed independence to take place.[18][19][20][21]
In March 2020, heavy rain and flooding in Dili caused part of a retaining wall in the B. J. Habibie Park adjacent to the bridge to collapse.[4]
Structural specification
The bridge has a superstructure 78m (256ft) long, is 11.5m (38ft) wide, and has two lanes. It is part of a section of roadway 540m (1,770ft) long and 8m (26ft) wide between the sucos of Bidau Lecidere[de] in the west and Bidau Santana in the east; that section also includes a short bridge over the Bidau River[de], which flows into the Bay of Dili immediately to the west of the Claran River.[1][3]
At the western end of the roadway section, there is a sign with the words "Ponte Presidente B.J.Habibie" in red to welcome users of the bridge.[9]
Related Research Articles
José Manuel Ramos-Horta GCL GColIH is an East Timorese politician. He has been the president of East Timor since 2022, having previously also held the position from 20 May 2007 to 20 May 2012. Previously he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2006 and Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007. He was a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, for working "towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as East Timor's first president since its re-establishment of independence, from 2002 to 2007.
East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor and the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco. The first inhabitants are thought to be descendant of Australoid and Melanesian peoples. The Portuguese began to trade with Timor by the early 16th century and colonised it throughout the mid-century. Skirmishing with the Dutch in the region eventually resulted in an 1859 treaty for which Portugal ceded the western half of the island. Imperial Japan occupied East Timor during World War II, but Portugal resumed colonial authority after the Japanese surrender.
In East Timor, transportation is reduced due to the nation's poverty, poor transportation infrastructure, and sparse communications networks.
Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was an Indonesian politician and engineer who served as the third president of Indonesia from 1998 to 1999. Less than three months after his inauguration as the seventh vice president in March 1998, he succeeded Suharto, who resigned after 32 years in office. Originating from Sulawesi with Gorontalese-Javanese ancestry, his presidency was seen as a landmark and transition to the Reform era.
The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor is a centre-left political party in East Timor. It presently holds 23 of 65 seats in the National Parliament. Fretilin formed the government in East Timor until its independence in 2002. It obtained the presidency in 2017 under Francisco Guterres but lost in the 2022 East Timorese presidential election.
The 2006 East Timorese crisis began as a conflict between elements of the military of East Timor over discrimination within the military and expanded to a coup attempt and general violence throughout the country, centred in the capital Dili. The crisis prompted a military intervention by several other countries and led to the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The Indonesian invasion of East Timor, known in Indonesia as Operation Lotus, began on 7 December 1975 when the Indonesian military (ABRI/TNI) invaded East Timor under the pretext of anti-colonialism and anti-communism to overthrow the Fretilin regime that had emerged in 1974. The overthrow of the popular and short-lived Fretilin-led government sparked a violent quarter-century occupation in which approximately 100,000–180,000 soldiers and civilians are estimated to have been killed or starved to death. The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documented a minimum estimate of 102,000 conflict-related deaths in East Timor throughout the entire period from 1974 to 1999, including 18,600 violent killings and 84,200 deaths from disease and starvation; Indonesian forces and their auxiliaries combined were responsible for 70% of the killings.
José Maria de Vasconcelos, popularly known as Taur Matan Ruak, is an East Timorese politician who served as 8th prime minister of East Timor from 2018 to 2023. He also served as 5th president of East Timor from 2012 to 2017.
Rebel soldiers of the Timor Leste Defence Force invaded the homes of the President and Prime Minister of East Timor on 11 February 2008, leading to the shooting and serious wounding of President José Ramos-Horta and the shooting up of the car of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. Two rebel soldiers, including leader Alfredo Reinado, were shot dead by presidential security forces. Reinado had deserted the military in 2006 along with 600 others after complaining of regional discrimination in promotions, sparking the 2006 East Timorese crisis. The attacks have been variously interpreted as attempted assassinations, attempted kidnappings and an attempted coup d'état. The rebels' intentions remain unknown.
The National Council of Maubere Resistance was an umbrella organisation of East Timorese individuals and organisations dedicated to resisting the Indonesian occupation of 1975–1999.
The Cristo Rei of Dili statue is a 27.0-metre-high (88.6 ft) colossal statue of Jesus Christ situated atop a globe at Cape Fatucama in Dili, East Timor. It is one of East Timor's main tourist attractions.
East Timor and Indonesia established diplomatic relations in 2002. Both share the island of Timor. Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed East Timor in 1976, maintaining East Timor as its 27th province until a United Nations-sponsored referendum in 1999, in which the people of East Timor chose independence. Following a United Nations interim administration, East Timor gained independence in 2002. Indonesia already had a consulate in Dili during the Portuguese colonial period, though Indonesia formalized their relations by establishing an embassy in Dili. Since October 2002, East Timor has an embassy in Jakarta and consulates in Denpasar and Kupang. Relations between the two countries are generally considered highly positive, despite various problems. Numerous agreements regulate cooperation in different areas. East Timorese are visa-free in Indonesia.
Presidential elections were held in East Timor on 17 March 2012, with a second round on 16 April. Incumbent president José Ramos-Horta, who was eligible for a second and final term as president, announced that he would seek nomination to be a candidate in the election. The election was seen as a test for the "young democracy" in seeking to take control of its own security. Former military commander Taur Matan Ruak provisionally beat Francisco Guterres in a second round runoff.
The following lists events that happened during 2008 in East Timor.
The Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace is the official workplace of the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. It is located in Avenida Presidente Nicolau Lobato, Bairro Pite, a suco of Dili, the capital city of East Timor, and has been the workplace of the President since 2009.
The Palácio das Cinzas is the former official workplace of the President of East Timor. It served in that role from 2002 to 2009. As of 2022, it was the headquarters of the East Timorese Ministry of Health.
Presidential elections were held in East Timor on 19 March 2022. Incumbent Francisco Guterres sought election to a second term. As none of the presidential nominees received at least 50% of the cast votes, a runoff was held on 19 April 2022, between the top two candidates, José Ramos-Horta and Guterres. Ramos-Horta won the runoff with 62.1% of the total votes cast.
The CPLP Bridge is a pair of two-lane road bridges in the suco of Comoro, a western suburb of Dili, capital city of East Timor.
Bidau Santana is a suco in Cristo Rei Administrative Post, Dili Municipality, East Timor. The administrative area covers an area of 1.84 square kilometres and at the time of the 2015 census it had a population of 6,482 people.
1 2 Azancot de Menezes, M. (16 March 2020). "Díli: água a mais e cidadania e governação a menos"[Dili: too much water and too little citizenship and governance]. Jornal Tornado (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
1 2 Raynor, Sophie (6 September 2019). "A Postcard from Dili". Global Hobo. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
↑ Pattipeilohy, Flo (13 September 2019). "BJ Habibie dalam Kenangan Warga Timor Lorosa'e"[BJ Habibie in Memories of the People of East Timor]. kumparan (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
1 2 3 Redaksi [Net Editor] (2 October 2019). "Habibie, Titik Temu di Timor Lorosa'e"[Habibie, Meeting Point in East Timor]. Jaring (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
↑ Kencana, Maulandy Rizky Bayu (30 August 2019). "Timor Leste Resmikan Jembatan Bernama BJ Habibie"[Timor Leste Inaugurates a Bridge Named BJ Habibie]. liputan6.com (in Indonesian). Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
↑ "Peresmian jembatan BJ Habibie di Timor Leste"[The inauguration of the BJ Habibie bridge in Timor Leste]. Antara News (in Indonesian). Antara. 29 August 2019. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
↑ Miller, M. (2004). "From reform to repression: the post-New Order's shifting security policies in Aceh". Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs. 38 (4): 129–162.
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