A republic in southeastern Asia including more than 13,000 islands; freed from Dutch control in 1949; the principal oil producer in the Far East and Pacific regions; Also called: Dutch East Indies.
Country in SE Asia, made up of 13,677 islands situated on or near the equator, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's fourth most popular country, surpassed only by China, India, and the US.
government
The 1945 constitution (amended 1950 and 1969) is based on a state ideology, the Pancacila (Five Principles), of monotheism, humanitarianism, Indonesian unity, representative democracy by consensus, and social justice. The people's consultative council (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat, MPR) is the supreme organ of state. It comprises 500 members of the house of representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, DPR) as well as 500 appointed representatives from regional assemblies and functional groups (including 200 from the armed forces). It sits once every five years to elect an executive president and vice president, and sanctions the guidelines of state policy. The DPR functions as a single-chamber legislature, comprising 400 directly elected members and 100 presidential appointees (of whom three-quarters represent the armed forces). It meets at least once a year, with elections every five years. Indonesia has a three-party system, with Golkar holding power since 1967. The president (elected every five years by the
MPR) works with an appointed cabinet, exercises the right of veto over DPR bills, and appoints governors for each of Indonesia's 27 provinces.
history
Between 3000 and 500 BC, two waves of immigrants from the N (proto-Malays and deutro-Malays) settled in the region alongside the resident Melanesian population (still found in the Eastern Islands). A series of Hindu and Buddhist empires rose and fell between the 7th and 14th centuries, after which Islam spread throughout the region. From 1511 the Portuguese, followed closely by the English, set up trading posts throughout the archipelago. The Dutch East India Company established itself in Java, founding Batavia (now Jakarta) 1619. Over the next 300 years the Dutch gradually took control of all of present-day Indonesia, including the surviving sultanates. Declared a Dutch colony 1816, it was not until 1828, when the Dutch annexed Irian Jaya, that the boundaries of the modern republic were set.
rise of nationalism
Nationalist sentiments, evident in the late 19th century, culminated in the founding of the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI) 1927, led by Achmed Sukarno. It was brutally suppressed by the Dutch and its leaders exiled, but in 1942, when Japan occupied the region, the PNI, with Sukarno at its head, was installed as an anti-Western puppet government. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia's independence. Dutch attempts to retake the former colony were defeated 1949 when sovereignty was transferred to a free Indonesia, and on 16 Dec that year Sukarno was elected president of the new federal state.
republic
Plans for a centrally run Western-style democracy foundered as conflicts between communists, Muslims, and regional groups and minorities led to a series of coups, rebel governments, and violent confrontations. The provisional constitution was suspended 1950 and a policy of “guided democracy” introduced 1956. A relatively stable period followed due to an alliance between Sukarno, the communist PKI, and the army. However, by the 1960s, inflation was running at 650% per annum as, under Sukarno’s increasingly authoritarian rule, foreign debts accumulated. International relations were strained and Indonesia left the United Nations and moved increasingly into the Soviet sphere. Soviet-supplied arms were used in the confrontation with the Dutch over the recovery of Irian Jaya 1960–62 and with Malaysia over Borneo 1963.
army massacre
In Oct 1965 six army generals and their aides were kidnapped and murdered in an attempted coup. An unknown army general, Suharto, defeated the coup's leaders, undermining both Sukarno and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) who were linked to the plot. There followed several months of mass political murder as up to 700,000 people were killed by the army, and many more imprisoned without trial. Anyone remotely suspected of having communist sympathies was killed, including large numbers of Indonesian Chinese believed to have links with communist China. The PKI was obliterated. It was later revealed that the CIA had supplied the army with lists of communists and their sympathisers.
“New Order”
Although not elected president until 1967, Suharto instituted a “New Order” from 1966, with political power concentrated in the hands of a group of army and security-force officers. The principles of the Pancasila were propagated, and Suharto set about stabilizing a chaotic economy with the aid of a group of economists nicknamed “The Berkeley Mafia”. Expropriated assets were returned and foreign investment encouraged by a series of gradual reforms. Support for China and the Soviet Union was abandoned and Indonesia turned to the West, while maintaining a nonaligned policy.
During the 1970s Indonesia's oil revenue enabled the government to invest in numerous development programs. By the 1980s the country was self-sufficient in rice, thousands of new schools and health centers had been opened, and communications with the outer islands had been improved. However, the new oil wealth also gave rise to corruption on an unprecedented scale.
areas of contention
In 1975 Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which remained isolated (as a result of travel restrictions) until the early 1990s as the army fought to quash the secessionist threat. An estimated 200,000 people out of population of 7,000 died from war or related famine during this period, which culminated in the massacre by the Indonesian army of 50 Timorese demonstrators Nov 1991. The United Nations has refused to recognize Indonesia's claim to East Timor.
Other separatists movements opposed to Suharto's authoritarian rule flared up in the Maluku (Moluccas) islands and in Irian Jaya, where the Free Papua Movement (OPM) systematically opposed Indonesian rule. Fighting erupted in Irian Jaya 1984, leading thousands of Irianese to flee to Papua New Guinea.
transmigration
In response to the rebellion in Irian Jaya, Suharto announced 1984 a stepping of his “transmigration program”, aimed at resettling families from overpopulated Java, Madura, and Bali in sparsely populated outer islands, such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, where interethnic friction was evident. Over six million people were relocated in this way, but transmigration was subsequently scaled down due to environmental and economic problems. Strongly opposed by native Melanesians, the program created more than 10,000 refugees in neighboring Papua New Guinea.
moves toward political reform
Improved living standards and economic reforms led to pressure for greater political reform and openness, and in April 1991 a 45-member Democracy Forum was launched by leading members of the country's religious and cultural intelligentsia. It was seen as an attempt to ventilate ideas about freedom in politics in what remained an authoritarian state. The government imposed strict limitations on the group's operations. The new political openness appeared threatened 1992 when two students were arrested for taking part in a satirical review mocking the forthcoming elections, and in early 1993 several student publications were shut down.
The ruling Golkar party was returned to power in the 1992 assembly elections, but with a 5% drop in support. In March 1993 President Suharto was reelected for a sixth consecutive five-year term. In Oct 1993 he installed Minister Harmoko as the first civilian leader of Golkar, causing consternation among the military who were eager for Suharto's successor to be drawn from their ranks. The election Jan 1994 of former president Sukarno's daughter, Megawati, as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) aroused further fears among the ruling Golkar elite.
economy
Agriculture is important, employing nearly half the country's work force, but the government has also invested in prestige projects, such as the state's first aircraft industry. Tourism is now the third-largest foreign-exchange earner. The decline in oil prices in the 1980s led to a 20% expansion in non-oil exports, notably wood products, rubber, coffee, and minerals, by 1991. + prikaži više