COUNTRY PROFILE: INDONESIA
A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division,
Library of Congress
under an Interagency Agreement with the
Department of Defense
December 2004
Researchers: William H. Frederick
John B. Haseman
Kristina Van Hook
Robert L. Worden
Project Manager: Sandra W. Meditz
Federal Research Division
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 205404840
Tel:2027073900
Fax:2027073920
E-Mail:
Homepage: http://loc.gov/rr/frd/
56 Years of Service to the Federal Government
1948 – 2004
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Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Indonesia, December 2004
PREFACE
This Country Profile is one in a series of profiles of foreign nations prepared as part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. After a hiatus of several years, the program was revived in FY2004 under the sponsorship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, J-5, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate. Country Profiles, offering brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security, have long been and will continue to be featured in the front matter of published Country Studies. In addition, however, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series (as well as a number of additional countries of interest) in order to offer readers reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study. Country Profiles will be updated annually (or more frequently as events warrant) and mounted on the Federal Research Division website at www.loc.gov/rr/frd. They will also be revised as part of the preparation of new Country Studies and will be included in published volumes.
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Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Indonesia, December 2004
COUNTRY PROFILE: INDONESIA
December 2004
COUNTRY
Formal Name: Republic of Indonesia
(Republik Indonesia; the word Indonesia was
coined from the Greek indos—for India—and nesos—for island).
Short Form: Indonesia.
Former Names: Netherlands East Indies; Dutch East Indies.
Term for Citizen(s): Indonesian(s).
Capital: Jakarta (Special Capital City Region of Jakarta), located on the north coast of Java.
Major Cities: The eight largest cities in 2004 were Jakarta (Java), Surabaya (Java), Bandung (Java), Medan (Sumatra), Palembang (Sumatra), Semarang (Java), Ujungpandang (Sulawesi), and Tangerang (Java).
Date of Independence: Proclaimed August 17, 1945, from the Netherlands. The Hague recognized Indonesian sovereignty on December 27, 1949.
National Public Holidays: Religious holidays (celebrated by followers of that faith): include Imlek (Chinese or Lunar New Year, movable date in January or February); Eid’l Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice of the Prophet Ibrahim, movable date); Hari Raya Nyepi (Balinese Hindu New Year, movable date in March or April); Hijriyah (Islamic New Year, first day of Muharram, first month of the Islamic calendar, variable date); Good Friday (movable date in March or April); Maulid (Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, movable date); Waisak (Buddha’s Birthday, movable date in May or June); Ascension of Christ (movable date in May or June); Isra Miraj Nabi Muhammad (Night Journey and Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, movable date); Eid’l Fitri (end of the month of Ramadan, variable cluster of two days, often late in the year); and Christmas (December 25). Other days commemorated include: New Year’s Day, January 1; National Education Day, May 2; National Awakening Day, May 20; National Children’s Day, July 23; Independence Day, August 17; National Sports Day, September 8; Armed Forces Day, October 5; Youth Pledge Day, October 28; Heroes’ Day, November 10; and Women’s Day, December 22.
Flag:
The Indonesian flag has two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and
white. It is similar to the flag of Monaco, which is shorter, and also
to the flag of Poland, which is white (top) and red.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Prehistory: Archaeological evidence indicates that ancestors of modern humans occupied sites in Central and East Java as early as 1.9 million years ago; presumably, these hominids were widely distributed in other areas. Fossils were found in 2003 of a tiny species of ancient hominid (homo floresiensis) that lived up until at least 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores in the Lesser Sunda Islands. There is evidence of modern humans as early as about 40,000 years ago, but they may have been present much earlier. By about 5,000 years ago, the circulation of peoples within the archipelago and the absorption of influences from outside had begun to create a diverse but related complex of cultures often identified as Austronesian. What is today Indonesia lay at or near the center of this complex, which eventually spread east throughout the Pacific, and west as far as Madagascar.
Early History: Although Indonesian peoples clearly had contact with the outside world at an early date (cloves, found only in Maluku, had made their way to the Middle East as early as 4,000 years ago), physical evidence in the archipelago is much later. Sites containing Indian trade goods now date at about 400 B.C., and the first inscriptions (in eastern Kalimantan and West Java) at about 375–400 B.C. The first formal kingdoms of which we have extensive knowledge are Srivijaya (flourished c. A.D. 550–c. 1050), a Buddhist trading polity whose power was centered in the region of present-day Palembang and reached to coastal areas on the Malaysian peninsula and elsewhere, and Mataram, in Central Java, where magnificent Buddhist and Hindu monuments such as Borobudur and Prambanan were constructed in the eighth and ninth centuries. The greatest of the subsequent Hindu-Buddhist states, the empire of Majapahit centered in East Java, claimed hegemony from the late thirteenth to early sixteenth centuries over a wide trading region stretching from Sumatra to Maluku.
Islam entered the archipelago in about the eleventh century, but significant conversions did not take place for two centuries or more, beginning with Pasai (North Sumatra) at the turn of the fourteenth century and going on to Makasar and Central Java in the seventeenth century. Contacts from China deepened between the tenth and fourteenth centuries as a result of growing trade, but Mongol attempts to control Javanese power (in the late thirteenth century) failed, and early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) efforts to exercise great political and economic influence were fleeting. It was at this time also that Western visitors began appearing, starting with Marco Polo in the late thirteenth century and continuing with the Portuguese and Spanish in the sixteenth century. They were soon followed by the Dutch (1596) and the English (1601). Europeans affected trade and politics in specific places and periods, but for most of the archipelago beyond Java and parts of Maluku, colonial rule did not set in until the mid- or late nineteenth century.
Colonial Period: Dutch power in the archipelago grew very gradually, and colonial rule was not a goal of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which dominated trade from Amsterdam and, after the early seventeenth century, a fortified port called Batavia (now Jakarta) in West Java. But on Java local realities produced, by the mid-eighteenth century, a symbiotic Dutch-Javan relationship that survived the bankruptcy of the VOC in 1799 and soon took the shape of a colonial administration, which grew and consolidated during the late 1800s. In the first decades of the twentieth century, a modern Dutch colonial state extended its control to most of the area we now call Indonesia. Simultaneously, some of the peoples ruled by this state discovered nationalism; the first groups date from the early 1900s, and by the 1920s and 1930s an array of modern political organizations and leaders, including the well-known nationalist figure Sukarno (1901–70), came to the fore. The struggle between the Dutch colonial government and the Indonesian nationalist movement was well under way when the Japanese occupied the Indies in 1942. They remained until the end of World War II in August 1945.
Independence Period: On August 17, 1945, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the independent Republic of Indonesia with Sukarno as president and Hatta as vice president. Allied forces (mostly British and British Indian troops) did not arrive until six weeks later, by which time the republic had begun to establish itself and nationalist pride had burgeoned. The period October-December 1945 was filled with violent conflict in which Indonesians made it clear they would defend their independence with their lifeblood. Forcing the Dutch to negotiate with the republic for an end to hostilities, the British withdrew in late 1946. The republic subsequently survived two Dutch “police actions” and an internal communist rebellion, and on December 27, 1949, The Hague formally recognized the sovereignty of a federated Republic of the United States of Indonesia, which a year later was formed into a unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Despite the holding of democratic elections in 1955, the years following the struggle for independence were characterized by political and economic difficulty: regional dissidence, attempted assassinations and coups d’état, military-civilian conflict, and economic stagnation. A period of Guided Democracy was announced in 1959 by Sukarno, who in September 1963 proclaimed himself president-for-life and presided over a political system in which the civilian nationalist leadership, much of the Islamic leadership, the large Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and the army were all at odds. This tense and hostile atmosphere was broken on September 30, 1965, with what appears to have been an attempted PKI coup against the Sukarno government. The precise circumstances remain unclear, but the immediate result was that a “New Order” coalition of students, intellectuals, Muslims, and the army brought about a military-dominated government that removed Sukarno and permitted a broad and deadly assault on communists, especially on Java, Bali, and Sumatra. In late 1965 and early 1966, an estimated 500,000 Indonesian communists and suspected communists were killed and many more arrested. On March 11, 1966, power was transferred from a seriously ill Sukarno to a high-ranking army officer, Suharto; the PKI was formally banned the following day. Suharto became the acting president on March 12, 1967, and the New Order era began.
The New Order era, which lasted for more than 30 years, has a mixed record. Like Guided Democracy, it was authoritarian, but it was more successful in bringing stability to the nation. Unlike Guided Democracy, its economic achievements were enormous and the well-being of the majority of Indonesians undeniably improved. Average life expectancy, for example, increased from 46 to 65.5 years. On the other hand, the state’s heavy involvement in banking and industry, especially the petroleum and natural gas sectors, worked against competition and encouraged corruption on a large scale. Heavy-handed political control and propagandizing of a national ideology may have aided stability, but also did not prepare the nation for a modern political existence. A modernizing, educated, and better-off middle class grew, but gained little or no political clout; poverty was reduced, but some particularly severe pockets appeared to be intractable. Suharto provided strong leadership, but he did not provide for a wise transition and, in his last years, clung to power and favored family and friends. East Timor, which had been forcibly annexed to Indonesia in 1976, saw bitter conflict between the Indonesian military and local independence movements. When the Asian financial crisis hit in 1997–98, the New Order lost the economic justification that had guaranteed much of its public support, and there was a widespread call for Suharto to step down. He resigned on May 21, 1998, little more than two months after being selected for his seventh term as president.
Suharto was succeeded by Bucharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who sought first to resolve the East Timor situation and begin a new and more open electoral process. In 1999, following Indonesia’s first freely contested parliamentary elections since 1955, Abdurrahman Wahid, well-known as both a progressive intellectual and as leader of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization (Nahdlatul Ulama, NU) became president. His quirky and often uncompromising leadership style, and questions about both his competency and his health, brought him increasing opposition and eventually serious threats of impeachment. He was dismissed from office in July 2001 in favor of Megawati Sukarnoputri, his vice president and head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Megawati, Sukarno’s eldest daughter, was decisively defeated in the September 2004 presidential runoff election by the Democratic Party candidate, retired army general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono was sworn in as president in October 2004.
GEOGRAPHY
Location: Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia. The
approximate geographic center is at 5ES and 120EE. It
lies between the Indian and Pacific oceans and between
the continents of Asia and Australia, south of Malaysia
and the Philippines, and northwest of Australia.
Size: Estimates of the size of Indonesia’s total area vary. Officially, the Indonesian government says the total land area is 1.9 million square kilometers and total sea area, 7.9 million square kilometers, including an exclusive economic zone. Academic sources report a total land area of 2,027,087 square kilometers plus 3,166,163 square kilometers of territorial waters and note that the country measures about 5,100 kilometers at its greatest east-west extent, and about 1,888 kilometers at its greatest expanse north to south. According to U.S. Government sources, Indonesia has 1,826,440 square kilometers of land, some 93,000 square kilometers of water area (the sum of all water surfaces delimited by international boundaries and/or coastlines, including inland water bodies, such as lakes, reservoirs, and rivers) for a total area of 1,919,440 plus a 7.9 million-square-kilometer maritime area.
Land Boundaries: Indonesia’s land boundaries total 1,758 kilometers, including 1,107 kilometers with Malaysia, 820 kilometers with Papua New Guinea, and 288 kilometers with East Timor.
Length of Coastline: Indonesia’s coastline totals 54,716 kilometers on the Indian Ocean, Strait of Malacca, South China Sea, Java Sea, Sulawesi Sea, Maluku Sea, Pacific Ocean, Arafura Sea, Timor Sea, and other smaller seas.
Maritime Claims: Indonesia claims a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, measured from claimed archipelagic straight baselines. The total area claimed by the Indonesian government, including Indonesia’s territorial sea and an exclusive economic zone, encompasses 7.9 million square kilometers.
Topography: Indonesia is the largest archipelagic nation in the world. It encompasses more than 17,000 islands (17,508 according to the Indonesian Hydro-Oceanographic Office). About 6,000 of these islands are named, and about 1,000 are permanently settled. The five main islands are Java, Kalimantan, Papua (formerly called Irian Jaya), Sumatra, and Sulawesi. There are two major archipelagos, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku, and about sixty smaller archipelagos. The larger islands of Indonesia are mountainous, with some peaks reaching 3,800 meters above sea level on the western islands and as high as 5,000 meters on Papua. The highest point is Puncak Jaya (5,030 meters) on Papua. The region is tectonically unstable with some 400 volcanoes, of which 100 are active.
Principal Rivers: Indonesia’s waterways total 21,579 kilometers. The principal rivers are the Musi, Batanghari, Indragiri, and Kampar rivers on Sumatra; the Kapuas, Barito, and Mahakam rivers on Kalimantan; the Memberamo and Digul rivers on Papua; and the Bengawan Solo, Citarum, and Brantas rivers on Java, which are used primarily for irrigation.
Climate: Indonesia’s maritime equatorial climate typically produces high, even temperatures and heavy rainfall; temperature variations are generally due to island structure (elevation) and time of day, while rainfall may vary across the archipelago as a result of many different factors, among them monsoon patterns, which themselves vary according to location. Average temperatures at or near sea level range from about 23EC to 31EC. In most of the country, rainfall is comparatively heavy throughout the year, with a pronounced rainy season roughly between December and March. East of Surabaya, however, a dry season is increasingly noticeable, especially between June and October. The high elevations of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua receive about 3,000 millimeters of rain annually; lower elevations, and much of Java, receive 2,000 or more millimeters; farther east rainfall ranges between 1,000 (Sumba) and 2,000 millimeters per year (Bali and Timor).
Natural Resources: Petroleum and natural gas are among Indonesia’s most important natural resources. Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Most petroleum production is on central Sumatra, but Java also has significant production, and there are substantial proven offshore reserves. There are also large coal reserves. Other significant minerals are bauxite, copper, gold, iron, manganese, nickel, sulfur, silver, and tin. An important nonmineral resource is timber.
Land Use: According to 2001 estimates, 11.3 percent (206,753 square kilometers) of Indonesia’s total land area is arable, and land planted in permanent crops, including an irrigated area of 48,150 square kilometers, represents 7.2 percent of the total (132,051 square kilometers). There are 1,619,687 square kilometers of nonarable land and land not under permanent crops.
Environmental Factors: Indonesia’s geography leaves the nation vulnerable to severe flooding, unpredictable drought and plant pest attacks, volcanic activity, and earthquakes, which are sometimes associated with tidal waves (tsunami). The most important environmental issues associated with human activities are forest degradation (unregulated cutting, fires, smoke and haze, and erosion); water pollution from industrial wastes and sewage; air pollution from motor vehicles and industry in urban areas, and generally from smoke and haze caused by forest fires; and threats to biodiversity and rare plant and animal species.