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Indonesia Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Indonesia
Official Name: Republic of Indonesia
Capital: Jakarta
Area: 1,904,570 square kilometres ( 735,359 square miles )
Major cities (Population)
Jakarta 8,300,000 (1995 estimate)
Surabaia 2,473,272 (1990)
Bandung 2,056,915 (1990)
Medan 1,730,052 (1990)
Semarang 1,249,230 (1990)
Palembang 1,140,918 (1990)
Ujung Pandang 944,372 (1990)
Banjarmasin 480,737 (1990)
Population: 197,588,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 1.6 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 17 August 1945 (proclaimed independence; Indonesia became legally independent from Netherlands on 27 December 1949).
Constitution: August 1945, abrogated by Federal Constitution of 1949 and Provisional Constitution of 1950, restored 5 July 1959
Voting Rights: Universal at marriage or at age 17
Government
The president rules with the assistance of an appointed cabinet and is elected for a five-year term by the 1,000-member People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). Half of the MPR is appointed by the government. The other half forms the legislative House of Representatives, 400 members of which are elected and 100 appointed. In practice, the government is firmly under the control of the president and the military. People who are married or over the age of 17 are eligible to vote.
Recent History
By the end of the 17th century most of the Indonesian archipelago was under Dutch control, and it remained so until the Japanese invaded in 1942 during World War II. Upon Japan’s defeat, Indonesian nationalists under the leadership of Sukarno proclaimed independence from the Netherlands in August 1945. Several years of negotiations and guerrilla warfare followed before independence was granted in 1949. The nominal union with the Netherlands was dissolved in 1954.
A republic was formed under President Sukarno, but in its early years the new democracy proved unstable. In 1956 Sukarno introduced a more authoritarian form of government. In 1957 martial law was imposed. In 1959 the 1945 constitution was reinstated, and the following year a provisional People’s Consultative Assembly with members appointed by Sukarno replaced the elected House of Representatives, marking the beginning of what Sukarno called “guided democracy”. In its desire to bolster the idea of unity in diversity, the government promotes a state ideology called Pancasila, which includes five basic principles: faith in one God, a just and civilized humanity, the unity of Indonesia, social justice for all, and democracy guided by consensus.
In 1963 Sukarno launched a “confrontation” against the new Malaysian federation. This, coupled with economic mismanagement and increasing tensions between the main political groupings, led in 1965 to an attempted coup by army officers, apparently supported by the Communist party. The uprising was suppressed by General Suharto. Many died in the attendant rioting and violence—estimates ranged from 80,000 to more than 1 million. Sukarno was stripped of his governmental powers in 1967 and in 1968 Suharto became president.
Suharto’s military-dominated “New Order” government reversed the previous anti-Western policy and consolidated its hold on power. The Communist party was banned, and the other opposition parties were forced to merge. Golkar, a coalition of functional groups such as civil servants and teachers, which serves as the political vanguard for Suharto’s “New Order”, has won more than 60 per cent of the vote in every election. When Suharto loosened control on the press and opposition groups in the early 1990s, many people demonstrated for greater democracy and a change of leadership, and there were clashes between the armed forces and protesters. However, Suharto was the only candidate on the ballot in the 1993 presidential election. He is expected to retire in 1998. Although accused of being an authoritarian ruler with a disregard for human rights and a tendency to give special treatment to relatives, Suharto is credited with engineering Indonesia’s vibrant economic growth and with holding this ethnically diverse country together.
Indonesia maintains jurisdiction over all of the island of Timor, although its annexation of the eastern portion has not been recognized by the United Nations (UN) or many governments. When Portugal withdrew from East Timor in 1975, Frente Revolucionaria do Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin), a left-wing political group seeking independence, gained control of Dili, the capital. Indonesia considered Fretilin a threatening movement and invaded East Timor in December. Despite condemnation by Portugal and the UN, Indonesia later annexed the area as its 24th province. Human-rights organizations claim that more than 100,000 people may have been killed by the Indonesian army during the annexation. Ongoing political tensions in the region led to a massacre of pro-independence demonstrators by Indonesian soldiers in November 1991. Fighting between Indonesian troops and Fretilin members continued into the mid-1990s, despite reconciliation talks between Indonesian officials and exiled Timorese leaders. East Timor drew additional international attention in 1996 when two Timorese activists, Bishop Carlos Belo and José Ramos-Horta (in exile), won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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