REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Official name: Republik Indonesia (Republic of Indonesia)
Location: South-East Asia
International organisations: The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum, The Association of South East Asian Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation
Borders: East Timor, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea
Coastline: Arafura Sea, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Straits of Malacca, Timor Sea
Land area: 1,919,440 Km2
Population: 231,300,000
Ethnicity: Most Indonesians are Malayo-Polynesians, including Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, Malay 7.5%, many others including 2.6% Chinese
Languages: Bahasa Indonesia, a synthetic Malay language, is the official language and is widely understood. Most Indonesians also speak a local language, of which Javanese has the largest number of speakers.
Religion: Sunni Moslem 88%, Christian 8% (Protestant 5%, Catholic 3%), Hindu 2%, Buddhist 1%
Form of government: Presidential democracy. Indonesia is divided into 26 provinces and two special districts for Jakarta and Yogjakarta.


Capital: Jakarta
Constitution: The Constitution of the Indonesian Republic, which was proclaimed in August 1945 officially came into effect at Independence, 27 December 1949. An amended version is now in use.
Head of state: President, elected by the People's Consultative Assembly (consisting of the House of Representatives plus 200 additional members) for a five-year term. The Constitution has now been amended to provide for the direct election of the President.
Head of government: The President
Legislature: The House of People's Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) is a unicameral legislature with 500 members, 462 elected for five-year term by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies, and 38 members appointed as representatives of the Army. From the next election the Army's representation will be abolished.
Electoral authority: The National Election Commission conducts elections.
Freedom House 2005 rating: Political Rights 3, Civil Liberties 4

Political history

The Indonesian archipelago was brought under Dutch control between the 17th and 19th centuries, and was called the Netherlands East Indies. A nationalist movement developed from 1908, and seized the opportunity of the Japanese occupation of the country from 1941 to declare independence in August 1945. The Dutch recognised Indonesian independence in December 1949 and the independence leader Sukarno became President.

President Sukarno

Parliamentary elections were held in 1955, but thereafter Sukarno's regime became increasingly authoritarian. In September 1965 the Army moved against what it said was an attempted Communist revolution. In the consequent chaos an estimated 500,000 people were killed. Sukarno was forced to resign and the Army leader General Suharto became President in 1967. During Suharto's 30-year reign a facade of parliamentary government was created, but elections were carefully controlled by the regime. In 1998 a mounting political and economic crisis forced Suharto to resign, and Indonesia's first free legislative elections were held in June 1999. The party of Megawati Sukarnoputri, Sukarno's daughter, won the most seats, but the legislature chose Abdulrahman Wahid as President. Wahid's incapacity led him to resign in July 2001 and Megawati became President. During this period Indonesia was forced to accept the independence of East Timor.

Megawati's party, the Democratic Party of Indonesia (Struggle), is mainly a personal vehicle without a distinct ideology other than nationalism. Its principal rival is the Golkar Party, originally a front for the Army but now representing secular conservatism. (Golkar is an acronym meaning "Functional Groups.") The other main parties are the Islamist United Development Party and National Awakening Party. The once-powerful Communist Party has not recovered from its repression in 1965.

Human Rights Watch's 2002 Report on Indonesia noted:

"Despite restoring some political stability to Indonesia during its year and a half in office, the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri failed to deal with several major human rights challenges. These included continued violations of international human rights law by the country's military forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI), pervasive corruption, separatist conflict in Aceh and Papua, religious violence in Maluku and Poso, and attacks on human rights defenders. These failures stemmed in part from the administration's lack of political will to resist former supporters and beneficiaries of the Suharto government, including the TNI."

In 2003 the Indonesian constitution was amended to provide for the direct election of the President. At Indonesia's first direct presidential election, held in two stages in July and September 2004, Megawati was defeated by former general and security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who promised a more activist government.