Indonesia

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Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is a group of thousands of islands roughly between mainland Asia and Australia. Its 250 million people are mostly Muslim, but with local outcrops of other religions (such as Bali, which is mainly Hindu).

In its long and complex history, Indonesia has come under the sway of various empires, most importantly almost 3 centuries of Dutch rule. Dutch rule came to an end in 1942 when the Japanese Army invaded South-East Asia. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the surrender of the Japanese Army, Indonesian nationalists used this opportunity to achieve independence. The Dutch tried to re-take Indonesia, but heavy guerrilla fighting and a threat by the US to end Marshall Aid to the Netherlands (crippled by the war) forced the Dutch to recognize Indonesian independence.

An attempt at democracy of sorts was made by the new leader Sukarno, but this failed. With Indonesia's economy in turmoil, in a bid to distract the citizens from the hardships they faced, Sukarno created a common enemy in the newly federated states of Malaysia. Konfrontasi was an undeclared war, which involved a failed attempt to seize control of oil-rich Brunei and Borneo using guerrilla warfare in 1963. While Sukarno publicly portrayed himself as an anti-colonial, in reality he was aiming for a greater Indonesia (Indonesia Raya). This involved not only the eventual occupation of Malaysia and Brunei but also the invasion and incorporation of Papua New Guinea (East Irian) and Australia (South Irian). In 1965, a failed "Communist" coup left several top military generals dead, and was blamed on the only communist party in Indonesia, and the ethnic Chinese. This led to a widespread purge that killed at least half a million people. Sukarno was replaced by a military general, Suharto. This led to a thirty year period of one-party right-wing rule (multiple political parties were allowed, but only if they had the same policies as the government). Suharto's rule was marked with human rights abuses, an invasion and occupation of East Timor in 1975 (which resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 East Timorese), and the annexation of West Papua (West Irian) in a fraudulent "Act of Free Choice" in which Papuan tribal elders were forced to cede their territory at gunpoint in 1969. Over 100,000 Papuans are reported to have died under Indonesia's military occupation.

Suharto's rule also enabled some of the most astonishing corruption that the world has seen. No head of state has ever leeched more off of his country's economy: Even the late Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania (who devoted 40% of his country's GDP to building a hideous palace) and the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines (whose still-living widow Imelda is best described as a bad caricature of an 18th century French princess mixed with a dash of Lady Macbeth) look like nickel ante amateurs next to Suharto. Just how much he and his (military and military-affiliated) cronies stole is unlikely to ever be known, as the Suharto clan still holds many of these assets, but the figure is estimated to lie somewhere between the GDP of a smallish African country and Bernie Madoff. That Indonesia survived his pilfering as well as it did--which is to say, not very well--is a testament to the country's sheer raw potential.

After the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis weakened the economy, and made people angry and protests led to Suharto resigning from office. This led to a reform to re-establish democracy in Indonesia, such as having legislative and presidential elections, though most of the parties and civil service are corrupt. The 2000s was marked by various terrorist acts by homegrown extremist Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah (affiliated with Al Qaeda), including the bombing of churches across the Indonesian archipelago on Christmas Eve 2000, resulting in the deaths of 18 people; the deaths of over 200 tourists during a coordinated nightclub bombing on Bali in 2002; and a series of suicide bomb attacks on Bali in 2005 which killed 20 people.

In 2013, Jemaah Islamiyah called for the deaths of all Australians living in Indonesia, after it was revealed by Edward Snowden that the Australian government had hacked the mobile telephones of Indonesian politicians, and Australian teachers living in the country were being used to spy on Indonesia.

The result of a negotiated peace in Aceh Province in Sumatra has been the elevation of many Free Aceh Movement leaders to positions of power in the provincial government. Consequently, a form of sharia law is now enforced in Aceh with regular public whippings. It is considered lenient because there are no stonings.[1]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Gay in Aceh? Brace for 100 lashes in front of a jeering crowd
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