(FORTUNE Magazine) – Bacharuddin Jusuf "Rudy" Habibie, 62, the new President of Indonesia, is no ordinary man. For verification of this fact, consult the first paragraph of his authorized biography: "He is an intelligent person, even a genius, and out of [Indonesia's] 190 million inhabitants, there is only one B.J. Habibie...."

Indonesia's new leader does express unique--some would say bizarre--economic theories. He once, for example, suggested that governments might fight inflation by flooding and parching their countries' money supply, that central banks exert their control by manipulating the interest rate daily--50% one day, 5% the next. Habibie calls this "zigzag" economics.

But to Indonesians worn down by decades of authoritarian rule and official corruption, he is also a distressingly familiar figure: an avid Suharto disciple who has parlayed his political influence into a vast business empire, thereby enriching dozens of his cronies and family members.

Habibie and his family have accumulated 87 or so companies over the years. These businesses range from an aircraft-manufacturing firm through shipbuilding, telecommunications, weapons, and nuclear energy companies. (Not that Habibie was by any stretch of the imagination a great manager: The World Bank estimates that the ten strategic industries Habibie controlled accounted for almost 50% of the losses reported by all of Indonesia's state-owned companies in 1991.) This empire isn't anywhere near as large as the Suharto family's conglomeration (reportedly more than 1,000 at last count), but early signs are that the country's suddenly rambunctious democracy movement is going to give Habibie's holdings at least as much unfriendly scrutiny as the Suharto interests are now receiving.

Sensing the changed situation, at least one Habibie sibling, Jusuf Effendy "Fanny" Habibie, resigned immediately as chairman of an industrial zone called the Batam Industrial Development Authority. Denying that his appointment had been in any way nepotistic, Fanny, a marine technologist, nonetheless insisted to FORTUNE that he had "always said it's bad luck to be a brother of [B.J.] Habibie. Bad luck!"

Habibie hardly fits the leadership profile Indonesia urgently requires at this crucial moment in its history. He is unlikely to earn the confidence of the international business community, his countrymen are already agitating for his removal, and Indonesia's military can't stand him. Most experts estimate Habibie's reign as Indonesia's chief of state will last 12 months at most. Indonesians can only be grateful that, as that biography puts it, "there is only one B.J. Habibie."

--Anthony Paul