About Indonesia

 

 

 

Key Data

Region Asia

Population 216,108,345 (July 1999 Estimate)

Area Total 1,919,440 km2

Area Land 1,826,440 km2

Coastline 54,716 km

Climate Tropical with hot and humid conditions; more moderate conditions in highlands

Languages Bahasa Indonesian (Official) English Dutch local dialects including Javanese

Currency Indonesian Rupiah

Holiday Independence Day, 17 August (1945)

Largest Cities

Jakarta 9,000,000 (1993)

Surabaya 2,500,000 (1990)

Medan 1,700,000 (1990)

People

Indonesia's 220 million people make it the world's fourth-most populous nation. The island of Java is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with more than 107 million people living in an area the size of New York State.

Indonesia includes numerous related but distinct cultural and linguistic groups. The ethnic groups tend to be derived from the Malay ethno-linguistic groupings, including the Javanese, which make up almost half the population, as well as Sundanese, Madurese, coastal Malays, among others. There is also a substantial minority of European and North American expatriates living in Indonesia, as well as some people of Dutch extraction who are descendants of the colonists.

Since independence, the national language, Indonesian (a form of Bahasa Malaysian), has spread throughout the archipelago and has become the language of all written communication, education, government, and business. Many local languages are still important in many areas, while English and Dutch are two non-native languages that are also spoken in Indonesia. The most significant of the local languages is Javanese, while English is the most widely spoken foreign language.

Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom apply to the five religions recognized by the state, namely Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. While in some remote areas, animism is practiced. Islam is the most widely practiced religion.

In terms of health and welfare, the population of Indonesia has a life expectancy at birth of 62.92 years (60.67 for males, and 65.29 for females) and an infant mortality rate of 57.3 deaths/1,000 live births. In terms of literacy, 78 percent of the female population and 89.6 percent of the male population, age 15 and over, can read and write. The literacy rate for the total population is averaged at 83.8 percent.

Education is free and compulsory for children between ages six and twelve. Although about 92 percent of eligible children are enrolled in primary school, a much smaller percentage attend full time. About 44 percent of secondary school-age children attend junior high school, and some others of this age group attend vocational schools.

History

The Indonesian archipelago is the largest island complex in the world, stretching for more than 3,000 miles east to west. During the first millennium C.E., the islands of Java and Sumatra had developed into a society of advanced civilization, with goods being shipped overseas and navigable rivers bringing the Indonesian hinterland into touch with distant markets. From the seventh to 14th centuries, Buddhism flourished on the island of Sumatra. In eastern Java Hinduism prevailed in the 14th century, and in 1364, the Hindu empire conquered most of what is now modern Indonesia and much of the Malay Archipelago. During the 12th century, Islam arrived in Indonesia, and replaced Hinduism in dominating Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, both Christian and Islamic proselytizing took place in the eastern archipelago, and both religions have large communities on these islands today. On the island of Bali, Hinduism endures.

During the 17th century, Indonesia gradually became under control of the Netherlands, except for East Timor, which remained under control of Portugal until 1975. Under the Dutch rule for 300 years, Indonesia was developed into one of the Netherlands’ richest colonies in the world.

In early 20th century, an independence movement began in Indonesia, led by young professionals and students some of whom were educated in the Netherlands. During World War II, Indonesia was occupied by the Japanese invaders. On Aug. 17, 1945, three days after the Japanese surrendered to the Allied forces, the Republic of Indonesia was established by a small group of Indonesians led by the independence leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta. The Dutch was struggling to regain control of Indonesia, but was met with strong resistance from the Indonesians. In 1949, after four years of war and negotiations, the hostilities between the Netherlands and Indonesia ended with the Dutch transferring the sovereignty to a federal Indonesian government. In 1950, Indonesia became a member of the United Nations.

At the time of independence, the western half of New Guinea in Indonesia remained under control of the Netherlands, and the region was permitted some measure of self-government and independence. In order to gain control of the region, Indonesia negotiated with the Netherlands but failed, followed with fighting between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961. In August 1962, an agreement was reached between Indonesia and the Netherlands for Indonesia to assume administrative responsibility for Irian Jaya on May 1, 1963. In 1969, under the U.N. supervision, the Indonesian government conducted an "Act of Free Choice" in Irian Jaya, and 1,025 Irianese representatives of local councils agreed to remain a part of Indonesia. After that, the U.N. General Assembly confirmed the transfer of sovereignty of Irian Jaya to Indonesia, followed with small-scale guerrilla activity opposing the Indonesian control of the region. Since President Habibie took office in 1998, there have been more explicit expressions within Irian Jaya of a desire for its independence from Indonesia.

East Timor had been a Portuguese colony from 1524 to 1975. In 1976, Indonesia declared East Timor its 27th province, and there was also small-scale guerrilla activity in the region opposing the Indonesian rule of East Timor following the declaration. With the U.N. involvement, in January 1999, Indonesia agreed to allow the people of East Timor to choose between autonomy and independence through a direct ballot. In August 1999, the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, and today it is considered as an independent entity from the Republic of Indonesia.

After its independence, Indonesia adopted a new constitution providing for a parliamentary system of government. From 1958, Indonesia saw rebellions on Sumatra, Sulawesi, West Java, and other islands. In the meantime, a failure by the constituent assembly to develop a new constitution further weakened the parliamentary system with an already divided parliament among various political parties. As a result, President Sukarno met little opposition in 1959 when he revived the 1945 constitution providing for broad presidential powers.

From 1959 to 1965, Indonesia was under the authoritarian regime of President Sukarno. During this period, Indonesia’s relations with the Asian communist countries were close, and domestically the Indonesian government was close to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). By 1965, many of the mass civic and cultural organizations were controlled by the PKI. With Sukarno’s acquiescence, the PKI began a campaign to establish a “fifth column” by arming its supporters, but was resisted by the army leaders. On Oct. 1, 1965, PKI sympathizers within the military, including elements from Sukarno’s palace guard, occupied key locations in Jakarta and kidnapped and murdered six senior generals. Consequently, army troops led by Major General Suharto obtained control of the capital.

During the year following the Oct. 1 event in 1965, Indonesia had been in an instable situation. There was violence everywhere and tens of thousands of alleged communists in rural areas were killed by the rightist gangs. As a result, the Communist Party remains banned from Indonesia today. During this period, President Sukarno tried but failed to return to his job as president and get the country back to order. At that time General Suharto became the head of the armed forces, and he forced President Sukarno, who remained president in name, to hand the key political and military powers to him. In March 1967, the Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly (MPRS), putting Sukarno under house arrest until his death in 1970, named General Suharto as acting president.

In 1968, the People’s consultative Assembly (MPR) formally selected Suharto to a full 5-year term as president. He was re-elected president for the next six terms as in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.

After coming to power, President Suharto reversed many of Sukarno’s policies and initiated a "New Order" in the country. With economic rehabilitation as priority of the New Order, Indonesia secured a rescheduling of its foreign debts and attracted aid through an intergovernmental group of donor countries. The complex regulations governing economic activities were simplified, and a new foreign investment law in 1967 provided a framework for new private capital investment. In addition to economic development under new economic policies, Indonesia enjoyed a political stability during the Suharto administration, which was supported by the military power.

In 1993, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the former President Sukarno, became candidate for the Indonesian Democratic Party, the opposition group, and later she was elected chairperson of the party. In 1996, in response to her popular support, the Suharto administration acted to remove her from the party chairperson position. This action resulted in nationwide rioting and protesting, but was suppressed by the government’s security forces.

In mid-1997, economic crisis swept across Asian countries, and Indonesia was also affected by the crisis. Economic hardship and popular resentment to the government’s corruption brought Indonesia into turmoil. The country saw student demonstrations as well as the public unrest. As a consequence, President Suharto was forced to resign on May 21, 1998, handing the power to Vice President Habibie.

While assuming power, President Habibie lost no time to assemble a cabinet and implement a series of political and economic policies. Several prominent political and labor prisoners were released, controls on the press, political parties and labor unions were lifted, and economic stabilization became one of the main tasks of the government. President Habibie promised to hold new elections, and a special session of the MPR was held in November 1998 setting the date of parliamentary elections in June 1999.

On June 7, 1999, Indonesia held elections for the national, provincial, and sub-provincial parliaments, with 48 parties participating and competing in the elections. Nearly two months after the elections, the results were finally confirmed on August 3. The primary opposition party, Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party, won 33.7 percent of the vote, and the ruling party, GOLKAR, gained 22.4 percent of the vote. On Oct. 20, 1999, the People’s Consultative Assembly selected Abdurrahman Wahid as the president. In November, with Megawati Sukarnoputri becoming the vice president, a coalition government was established in Indonesia.

Economy

While Indonesia was long touted for its sound macroeconomic management and spectacular growth, the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98 revealed the weak underpinnings of the economy: an unhealthy banking sector, untenable levels of private foreign debt, and noncompetitive practices that favored the financial interests of former President Suharto's family and friends.

Indonesia sought IMF assistance early in the crisis and eventually brokered a $42 billion bailout package; but Jakarta jeopardized the program by resisting strict IMF reforms, partly in response to the rupiah's collapse, which lost as much as 80% of its value at one point. The economic situation was bleak in 1998: the economy shrank a negative 13.7% and inflation increased significantly to 57.9%.

Real GDP in Indonesia increased by 5.5% between 1994 and 1998, an average annual compound growth rate of 1.4%, while the population increased by 6.4%, which was an annual compound growth rate of 1.6%. This resulted in a decrease in real GDP per capita from $3,288 to $3,264 over the same period.

Agriculture

The agriculture sector in Indonesia contributes 16.1% of the GDP and employs an estimated 44.0% of the labor force. The key primary food crops produced are rice, sugar cane, rice, coconuts, maize, bananas, soybeans, potatoes, cocoa beans and coffee. The primary meat products are chicken, pork, beef, goat and buffalo. The largest (in value terms) agricultural exports in 1997 were fish, rubber, palm oil, coffee and coconut oil. The total value of agricultural exports in 1997 was $7.7 billion, while the total value of agricultural imports in 1997 was $4.6 billion. Indonesia

Energy

Indonesia is a net energy exporter. In 1997 it is estimated that Indonesia exported about 662,000 barrels of oil per day and annual totals of 1.26 tcf of natural gas as well as 45 million short tons of coal.

Indonesia currently holds proven oil reserves of slightly under 5 billion barrels. This represents a 14 % decline in proven reserves since 1994. Much of Indonesia's proven reserve base is located onshore. Central Sumatra is the country's largest oil producing province and is the location of the large Duri and Minas oil fields. Other significant oil field development and production is located in accessible areas such as offshore northwestern Java, East Kalimantan, and the Natuna Sea. Indonesian crude oil varies widely in quality, with most streams having gravities in the 28o to 37o API range. Indonesia's two main export crudes are Sumatra Light, or Minas, with a 35o API, and the heavier, 22o API Duri crude.

Metals

Indonesia’s mineral sectors have played a significant role in the country’s economic development and attracted a substantial amount of foreign investment.

The identified copper, gold, nickel, and silver resources are in Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya, Sumatra, and some parts of Java. Resources of rare metals, industrial minerals, coal and peat were found in Sumatra. Gold, other precious metals, base metals, and phosphates were found in Java. Coal, peat, precious stones, and industrial minerals were reported to exist in Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Environment

Indonesia is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with a large segment of the population suffering from poverty. Although the archipelago possesses a wealth of natural resources as well as abundant bio-diversity, its population pressures have contributed to its environmental challenges.

Key current environmental issues in Indonesia include the following:

Industrial wastes and sewage pollution, due to the absence of environmental law enforcement

Poor overall sanitation and sewage treatment facilities, which then tend to result in health risks, as well as contamination of water supplies

Marine pollution, as well as associated coral reef degeneration

Air pollution in urban areas

Deforestation of pristine areas for timber, wood processing production, and subsistence agriculture

Major natural hazards include occasional floods, severe droughts, and tsunamis.

Regulation and protection of the environment in Indonesia comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Population and the Environment.

The major international agreements which Indonesia is party to include Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, and Wetlands. The Desertification, Marine Life Conservation, and Tropical Timber 94 agreements have all been signed, but not ratified.