Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie has been out of public view for a long time. During his last public appearance, Habibie was smiling broadly at the podium of the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in October 1999, guiding President Abdurrahman Wahid who had just been elected to succeed him. Since then the ex-president who was born in Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi, 64 years ago, "disappeared." Together with his wife, Hasri Ainun, he cho