"Legacy terbesarnya adalah dalam waktu yang sempit sebagai Presiden, ia mampu dan berani menyelesaikan persoalan Timor Timur dengan jalan referendum, kebebasan pers, Komnas Perempuan, mencabut kebijakan publik yang rasis. Saya akan mengenangnya bukan hanya sebagai teknokrat, tapi seorang demokrat sejati. Buku beliau, "Detik-Detik yang Menentukan" semoga bisa jadi bacaan wajib di sekolah.

Istirahatlah dengan bangga, Pak Habibie.

Mengutip obituari dari The Washington Post;
"Former Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who allowed democratic reforms and an independence referendum for East Timor following the ouster of the dictator Suharto, has died. He was 83.

His unpopular presidency was the shortest in modern Indonesia’s history, but was transformative. .. As president, Habibie apologized for past human rights abuses and outlined an eight-point reform program “to build a just, open and democratic society.

He ordered the release of political prisoners, dismantled restrictions on the press and reformed politics to allow for free elections.

He lifted a three-decade-old ban on the speaking and teaching of Mandarin as part of an easing of discriminatory policies against ethnic Chinese that was instituted by Suharto after his anti-communist pogroms of 1965-66.

Responding to international criticism of Indonesia’s occupation of Portugal’s former colony of East Timor, Habibie surprised Indonesians by announcing in January 1999 a plan to hold a referendum under U.N. supervision on self-determination, offering a choice between special autonomy and independence.”