By the time of the Renaissance, the islands of Java and Sumatra had
already enjoyed a 1,000-year heritage of advanced civilization
spanning two major empires. During the 7th-14th centuries, the
Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya flourished on Sumatra. At its peak,
the Srivijaya Empire reached as far as West Java and the Malay
Peninsula. Also by the 14th century, the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit
had risen in eastern Java. Gadjah Mada, the empire's chief minister
from 1331 to 1364, succeeded in gaining allegiance from most of what
is now modern Indonesia and much of the Malay archipelago as well.
Legacies from Gadjah Mada's time include a codification of law and
an epic poem. Islam arrived in Indonesia sometime during the 12th
century and, through assimilation, supplanted Hinduism by the end of
the 16th century in Java and Sumatra. Bali, however, remains
overwhelmingly Hindu. In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and
Islamic proselytizing took place in the 16th and 17th centuries,
and, currently, there are large communities of both religions on
these islands.
Beginning in 1602, the Dutch slowly established themselves as rulers
of Indonesia, exploiting the weakness of the small kingdoms that had
replaced that of Majapahit. The only exception was East Timor, which
remained under Portugal's control until 1975. During 300 years of
rule, the Dutch developed the Netherlands East Indies into one of
the world's richest colonial possessions.
During the first decade of the 20th century, an Indonesian
independence movement began and expanded rapidly, particularly
between the two World Wars. Its leaders came from a small group of
young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in
the Netherlands. Many, including Indonesia's first president,
Soekarno (1945-67), were imprisoned for political activities.
The Japanese occupied Indonesia for three years during World War II
(1942-1945). On August 17, 1945, three days after the Japanese
surrender to the Allies, a small group of Indonesians, led by
Soekarno and Mohammad Hatta, proclaimed independence and established
the Republic of Indonesia. They set up a provisional government and
adopted a constitution to govern the republic until elections could
be held and a new constitution written. Dutch efforts to reestablish
complete control met strong resistance. After four years of warfare
and negotiations, the Dutch transferred sovereignty to a federal
Indonesian Government. In 1950, Indonesia became the 60th member of
the United Nations.
Shortly after hostilities with the Dutch ended in 1949, Indonesia
adopted a new constitution, providing for a parliamentary system of
government in which the executive was chosen by and accountable to
parliament. Parliament was divided among many political parties
before and after the country's first nationwide election in 1955,
and stable governmental coalitions were difficult to achieve. The
role of Islam in Indonesia became a divisive issue. Soekarno
defended a secular state based on Pancasila, five principles of the
state philosophy--monotheism, humanitarianism, national unity,
representative democracy by consensus, and social justice--codified
in the 1945 constitution, while some Muslim groups preferred either
an Islamic state or a constitution that included a preambular
provision requiring adherents of Islam to be subject to Islamic law.
At the time of independence, the Dutch retained control over the
western half of New Guinea (known as Irian Jaya in the Soekarno and
Soeharto eras and as Papua since 2000) and permitted steps toward
self-government and independence.
Negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of Irian Jaya into
Indonesia failed, and armed clashes broke out between Indonesian and
Dutch troops in 1961. In August 1962, the two sides reached an
agreement, and Indonesia assumed administrative responsibility for
Irian Jaya on May 1, 1963. The Indonesian Government conducted an
"Act of Free Choice" in Irian Jaya under UN supervision in 1969 in
which 1,025 Papuan representatives of local councils agreed by
consensus to remain a part of Indonesia. A subsequent UN General
Assembly resolution confirmed the transfer of sovereignty to
Indonesia. Opposition to Indonesian administration of Papua gave
rise to small-scale guerrilla activity in the years following
Jakarta's assumption of control. In the more open atmosphere since
1998, there have been more explicit expressions within Papua calling
for independence from Indonesia.
Unsuccessful rebellions on Sumatra, Sulawesi, West Java, and other
islands beginning in 1958, plus a failure by the constituent
assembly to develop a new constitution, weakened the parliamentary
system. Consequently, in 1959, when President Soekarno unilaterally
revived the provisional 1945 constitution that provided for broad
presidential powers, he met little resistance. From 1959 to 1965,
President Soekarno imposed an authoritarian regime under the label
of "Guided Democracy." He also moved Indonesia's foreign policy
toward nonalignment, a foreign policy stance supported by other
prominent leaders of former colonies who rejected formal alliances
with either the West or Soviet bloc. Under Soekarno's auspices,
these leaders gathered in Bandung, West Java, in 1955 to lay the
groundwork for what became known as the Non-Aligned Movement. In the
late 1950s and early 1960s, President Soekarno moved closer to Asian
communist states and toward the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in
domestic affairs. Though the PKI represented the largest communist
party outside the Soviet Union and China, its mass support base
never demonstrated an ideological adherence typical of communist
parties in other countries.
By 1965, the PKI controlled many of the mass civic and cultural
organizations that Soekarno had established to mobilize support for
his regime and, with Soekarno's acquiescence, embarked on a campaign
to establish a "Fifth Column" by arming its supporters. Army leaders
resisted this campaign. Under circumstances that have never been
fully explained, on October 1, 1965, PKI sympathizers within the
military, including elements from Soekarno's palace guard, occupied
key locations in Jakarta and kidnapped and murdered six senior
generals. Major General Soeharto, the commander of the Army
Strategic Reserve, rallied army troops opposed to the PKI to
reestablish control over the city. Violence swept throughout
Indonesia in the aftermath of the October 1 events, and unsettled
conditions persisted through 1966. Right-wing gangs killed tens of
thousands of alleged communists in rural areas. Estimates of the
number of deaths range between 160,000 and 500,000. The violence was
especially brutal in Java and Bali. During this period, PKI members
by the tens of thousands turned in their membership cards. The
emotions and fears of instability created by this crisis persisted
for many years as the communist party remains banned from Indonesia.
Throughout the 1965-66 period, President Soekarno vainly attempted
to restore his political stature and shift the country back to its
pre-October 1965 position. Although he remained President, in March
1966, Soekarno transferred key political and military powers to
General Soeharto, who by that time had become head of the armed
forces. In March 1967, the Provisional People's Consultative
Assembly (MPRS) named General Soeharto acting President. Soekarno
ceased to be a political force and lived under virtual house arrest
until his death in 1970.
President Soeharto proclaimed a "New Order" in Indonesian politics
and dramatically shifted foreign and domestic policies away from the
course set in Soekarno's final years. The New Order established
economic rehabilitation and development as its primary goals and
pursued its policies through an administrative structure dominated
by the military but with advice from Western-educated economic
experts. In 1968, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) formally
selected Soeharto to a full five-year term as President, and he was
reelected to successive five-year terms in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988,
1993, and 1998. In mid-1997, Indonesia suffered from the Asian
financial and economic crisis, accompanied by the worst drought in
50 years and falling prices for oil, gas, and other commodity
exports. As the exchange rate changed from a fixed to a managed
float to fully floating, the rupiah depreciated in value, inflation
increased significantly, and capital flight accelerated.
Demonstrators, initially led by students, called for Soeharto's
resignation. Amid widespread civil unrest, Soeharto resigned on May
21, 1998, three months after the MPR had selected him for a seventh
term. Soeharto's hand-picked Vice President, B.J. Habibie, became
Indonesia's third President. President Habibie reestablished
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and donor community support for an
economic stabilization program. He released several prominent
political and labor prisoners, initiated investigations into the
unrest, and lifted controls on the press, political parties, and
labor unions.
In January 1999, Habibie and the Indonesian Government agreed to a
process, with UN involvement, under which the people of East Timor
would be allowed to choose between autonomy and independence through
a direct ballot held on August 30, 1999. Some 98% of registered
voters cast their ballots, and 78.5% of the voters chose
independence over continued integration with Indonesia. Many people
were killed by Indonesian military forces and military-backed
militias in a wave of violence and destruction after the
announcement of the pro-independence vote.
Indonesia's first elections in the post-Soeharto period were held
for the national, provincial, and sub-provincial parliaments on June
7, 1999. Forty-eight political parties participated in the
elections. For the national parliament, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia
Perjuangan (PDI-P, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by
Megawati Soekarnoputri) won 34% of the vote; Golkar ("Functional
Groups" party) 22%; Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB, National
Awakening Party, linked to the conservative Islamic organization
Nadhlatul Ulama headed by former President Abdurrahman Wahid) 13%;
and Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP, United Development Party, led
by Hamzah Haz) 11%. The MPR selected Abdurrahman Wahid as
Indonesia's fourth President in November 1999 and replaced him with
Megawati Soekarnoputri in July 2001.
The constitution, as amended in the post-Soeharto era, provides for
the direct election by popular vote of the president and vice
president. Under the 2004 amendment, only parties or coalitions of
parties that gained at least 3% of the House of Representatives
(DPR) seats or 5% of the vote in national legislative elections were
eligible to nominate a presidential and vice presidential ticket,
though that threshold is undergoing revision in advance of the 2009
election. The 2004 legislative elections took place on April 5 and
were considered to be generally free and fair. PDI-P lost its
plurality in the House of Representatives, dropping to under 19% of
the total vote, while Golkar remained near 1999 levels with 21% of
the vote. Five other parties won between 6 and 11% of the national
vote. Of the 18 other parties that participated, nine won small
numbers of seats in the DPR. The first direct presidential election
was held on July 5, 2004, contested by five tickets. As no candidate
won at least 50% of the vote, a runoff election was held on
September 20, 2004, between the top two candidates, President
Megawati Sukarnoputri and retired General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
In this final round, Yudhoyono won 60.6% of the vote. Approximately
76.6% of the eligible voters participated, a total of roughly 117
million people, making Indonesia's presidential election the largest
single-day election in the world. The Carter Center, which sent a
delegation of election observers, issued a statement congratulating
"the people and leaders of Indonesia for the successful conduct of
the presidential election and the peaceful atmosphere that has
prevailed throughout the ongoing democratic transition."
Natural disasters have devastated many parts of Indonesia over the
past few years. On December 26, 2004, a 9.1 to 9.3 magnitude
earthquake took place in the Indian Ocean, and the resulting tsunami
killed over 130,000 people in Aceh and left more than 500,000
homeless. On March 26, 2005, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck
between Aceh and northern Sumatra, killing 905 people and displacing
tens of thousands. After much media attention on the seismic
activity on Mt. Merapi in April and May 2006, a 6.2 magnitude
earthquake occurred 30 miles to the southwest. It killed more than
5,000 people and left an estimated 200,000 people homeless in the
Yogyakarta region. |
|
