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ABOUT THE INDONESIA
History of Indonesia
Fossilised remains of Homo erectus and his tools, popularly known as the "Java Man", suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by at least 1.5 million years ago. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, are thought to have originally been from Taiwan and arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE. From the 7th century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished bringing Hindu and Buddhist influences with it. The agricultural BuddhistSailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties subsequently thrived and declined in inland Java. The last significant non-Muslim kingdom, the Hindu Majapahitkingdom, flourished from the late 13th century, and its influence stretched over much of Indonesia. The earliest evidence of Islamised populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra; other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam which became the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and mixed with existing cultural and religious influences.
The History of
Indonesia was
shaped by its geographic position, its natural resources, the series of human
migrations, contacts, economy and trade, conquests and politics. Indonesia is
an archipelagic country
of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited) stretching along the equator in South East
Asia. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered
inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped
Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various
migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and
climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of
states.
Europeans
arrived in Indonesia from the 16th century seeking to monopolise the sources of
valuable nutmeg, cloves,
and cubeb pepper in Maluku.
In 1602 the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and
became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally
dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East
Indies as a nationalised colony. By the early 20th century
Dutch dominance extended to what was to become Indonesia's current boundaries.
The Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation during
WWII ended Dutch rule, and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian
independence movement. Two days after the surrender of Japan in August 1945,
nationalist leader, Sukarno, declared independence and was appointed president.
The Netherlands tried to reestablish their rule, but a bitter armed and diplomatic struggle ended
in December 1949, when in the face of international pressure, the Dutch
formally recognised Indonesian independence.
An attempted coup in 1965 led
to a violent army-led anti-communist
purge in which over half a million people were killed. General
Suharto politically out-manoeuvred President Sukarno, and was
formally appointed president in March 1968. His New Order administration garnered the
favour of the West whose investment in Indonesia was a major factor in the
subsequent three decades of substantial economic growth. In the late 1990s,
however, Indonesia was the country hardest hit by the East Asian Financial Crisis which led
to popular protests and Suharto's
resignation on 21 May 1998. The Reformasi era following Suharto's
resignation, has led to a strengthening of democratic processes, including a
regional autonomy program, the secession of East Timor,
and the firstdirect presidential election in 2004.
Political and economic instability, social unrest, corruption, natural
disasters, and terrorism have slowed progress. Although relations among
different religious and ethnic groups are largely harmonious, acute sectarian
discontent and violence remain problems in some areas.
Prehistory
Main article: Prehistoric Indonesia
In 2007
analysis of cut marks on two bovid bones found in Sangiran,
showed them to have been made 1.5 to 1.6 million years ago by clamshell tools,
and is the oldest evidence for the presence of early man in Indonesia.
Fossilised remains of Homo erectus,
popularly known as the "Java Man" were first discovered by the Dutch
anatomist Eugène Dubois at Trinil in
1891, and are at least 700,000 years old, at that time the oldest human
ancestor ever found. Further Homo erectus fossils
of a similar age were found at Sangiran in
the 1930`s by the anthropologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald,
who in the same time period also uncovered fossils at Ngandong alongside
more advanced tools, re-dated in 2011 to between 550,000 and 143,000 years old.[1][2] In
1977 another Homo erectus skull was discovered at
Sambungmacan[3]
In 2003, on the
island of Flores,
fossils of a new small hominid dated between 74,000 and 13,000 years old and
named "Flores Man"
(Homo floresiensis) were discovered much to
the surprise of the scientific community.[4] This
3 foot tall hominid is thought to be a species descended from Homo Erectus and
reduced in size over thousands of years by a well known process called island
dwarfism. Flores Man seems to have shared the island with
modern Homo sapiens until only 12,000 years
ago, when they became extinct. In 2010 stone tools were discovered on Flores
dating from 1 million years ago, which is the oldest evidence anywhere in the
world that early man had the technology to make sea crossings at this very
early time.[5]
The archipelago
was formed during the thaw after the latest ice age.
Early humans to travelled by sea and spread from mainland Asia eastward
to New Guineaand Australia. Homo sapiens reached
the region by around 45,000 years ago.[6] In
2011 evidence was uncovered in neighbouring East Timor,
showing that 42,000 years ago these early settlers had high-level maritime
skills, and by implication the technology needed to make ocean crossings to
reach Australia and other islands, as they were catching and consuming large
numbers of big deep sea fish such as tuna.[7]
Austronesian people form the majority of
the modern population. They may have arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE
and are thought to have originated in Taiwan.[8] This
theory presented above could be refuted and in need of revision due to new
scientific evidence presented by HUGO (Human Genome Organization) through genetic
studies of the Asian races that points to a single Asian migration from South
East Asia traveling northwards and slowly populating East Asia instead of the
other way around which as popularly depicted above. From the scientific
discovery which has been a silent evidence, it has pointed out that the South
East Asian civilizations are a of much older civilization compared to the
widely researched and well documented east Asians' ancient civilisations[9] Dong Son
culture spread to Indonesia bringing with it techniques
of wet-field
rice cultivation, ritual buffalo sacrifice, bronze casting, megalithicpractises,
and ikat weaving
methods. Some of these practices remain in areas including the Batak areas
of Sumatra, Toraja in
Sulawesi, and several islands in Nusa Tenggara.
Early Indonesians were animists who honoured the spirits of the dead as their
souls or life force could still help the living.
Ideal
agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as
early as the 8th century BCE,[10] allowed
villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century CE. These
kingdoms (little more than collections of villages subservient to petty
chieftains) evolved with their own ethnic and tribal religions. Java's hot and
even temperature, abundant rain and volcanic soil, was perfect for wet rice
cultivation. Such agriculture required a well organised society in contrast to
dry-field rice which is a much simpler form of cultivation that doesn't require
an elaborate social structure to support it.
Hindu-Buddhist
civilizations
Early kingdoms
1600-year-old stone inscription from
the era of Purnawarman, king of Tarumanagara, founded in Tugu sub-district
of Jakarta.
References to
the Dvipantara or Jawa Dwipa Hindu kingdom
in Java and Sumatra appear
in Sanskrit writings from 200 BCE.[citation needed] The
earliest archeological relic discovered in Indonesia is from the Ujung Kulon
National Park, West Java, where an early Hindu statue of Ganesha from
the 1st century CE was found on the summit of Mount Raksa in Panaitan Island.
There is also archeological evidence of a kingdom in Sunda territory in West
Java dating from the 2nd century, and according to Dr Tony Djubiantono, the
head of Bandung Archeology Agency, Jiwa Temple in Batujaya, Karawang, West Java was
also built around this time.
A number
of Hindu and Buddhist states
flourished and then declined across Indonesia. By the time of the EuropeanRenaissance, Java and Sumatra had
already seen over a millennium of civilization and two major empires. One such
early kingdom was Tarumanagara, which flourished between 358 and
669 CE. Located in West Java close to modern-day Jakarta,
its fifth-century king, Purnawarman, established the earliest known
inscriptions in Java, the Ciaruteun inscription located
near Bogor.
On this monument, King Purnavarman inscribed his name and made an imprint of
his footprints, as well as his elephant's footprints. The accompanying
inscription reads, "Here are the footprints of King Purnavarman, the
heroic conqueror of the world". This inscription is in Sanskrit and
is still clear after 1500 years. Purnawarman apparently built a canal that
changed the course of the Cakung River, and drained a coastal area for
agriculture and settlement. In his stone inscriptions, Purnawarman associated
himself with Vishnu,
and Brahminsritually
secured the hydraulic project.[11]
Three rough
plinths dating from the beginning of the 4th century are found in Kutai, East
Kalimantan, near Mahakam River.
The plinths bear an inscription in thePallava
script of India reading "A gift to the Brahmin priests".
The political
history of Indonesian archipelago during the seventh to 11th century was
dominated by Srivijaya based in Sumatra, also Sailendra that
dominated central Java and constructedBorobudur,
the largest Buddhist monument in the world. In fourteenth and fifteen centuries
the history is not well known due to scarcity of evidence. Two major states
dominated this period;Majapahit in East Java, the greatest of the pre-Islamic
Indonesian states, and Malacca on the west coast of the Malay
Peninsula, arguably the greatest of the Muslim trading empires.[12]
Medang
Prambanan in Java; built during the Sanjaya dynasty of
Mataram, it is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in south-east Asia.
Main article: Medang
Kingdom
Medang or previously known as Mataram was
an Indianized kingdom based in Central Java
around modern-day Yogyakarta between the 8th and 10th centuries. The center
of the kingdom was moved from central Java to east Java by Mpu Sindok.
An eruption of Mount Merapi volcano or a power struggle
may have caused the move.
The first king
of Mataram was Sri Sanjaya and
left inscriptions in stone.[13] The
monumental Hindu temple of Prambanan in the vicinity of Yogyakarta was built
by Daksa. Dharmawangsa ordered
the translation of the Mahabharata into Old Javanese in
996.
The kingdom
collapsed into chaos at the end of Dharmawangsa's reign under military pressure
from Srivijaya.
One of the last major kings of Mataram wasAirlangga who
reigned from 1016 until 1049.[14] Airlangga
was a son of Udayana of Bali and a relative
of Dharmawangsa re-established the kingdom including Bali under the name of
Kahuripan.
Sriwijaya
Main article: Srivijaya
The empire of Srivijaya in Southeast Asia
Srivijaya was
an ethnic Malay kingdom on Sumatra which
influenced much of the Maritime Southeast Asia. From the 7th
century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished as a result of trade
and the influences of Hinduism and Buddhism that were imported with it.[15]
As early as the first century CE
Indonesian vessels made trade voyages as far as Africa. Picture: a ship carved onBorobudur, circa 800 CE.
Srivijaya was
centred in the coastal trading centre of present day Palembang.
Srivijaya was not a "state" in the modern sense with defined
boundaries and a centralized government to which the citizens own allegiance.[16] Rather
Srivijaya was a confederacy form of society centered on a royal heartland.[17] It
was athalassocracy and
did not extend its influence far beyond the coastal areas of the islands of
Southeast Asia. Trade was the driving force of Srivijaya just as it is for most
societies throughout history.[18] The
Srivijayan navy controlled the trade that made its way through the Strait of
Malacca.[16]
By the 7th
century, the harbors of various vassal states of Srivijaya lined both coasts of
the Straits of Melaka.[17] Around
this time, Srivijaya had established suzerainty over large areas of Sumatra,
western Java, and much of the Malay
Peninsula. Dominating the Malacca and Sunda straits,
the empire controlled both theSpice Route traffic and local trade. It
remained a formidable sea power until the 13th century. This spread the ethnic
Malay culture throughout Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo. A
stronghold ofVajrayana Buddhism, Srivijaya attracted
pilgrims and scholars from other parts of Asia.
A series of
Chola raids in the 11th century weakened the Srivijayan hegemony and enabled
the formation of regional kingdoms based, like Kediri, on intensive agriculture
rather than coastal and long distance trade. Srivijayan influence waned by the
11th century. The island was in frequent conflict with the Javanese kingdoms,
first Singhasariand
then Majapahit.
Islam eventually made its way to the Aceh region of
Sumatra, spreading its influence through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders. By
the late 13th century, the kingdom ofPasai in northern
Sumatra converted to Islam. At that time Srivijaya was briefly a tributary of
the Khmer empire and later the Sukhothai
kingdom[citation needed]. The last
inscription dates to 1374, where a crown prince, Ananggavarman, is mentioned.
Srivijaya ceased to exist by 1414, when Parameswara,
the kingdom's last prince, converted to Islam and founded the Sultanate of Malaccaon the Malay
peninsula.
Singhasari and
Majapahit
Wringin Lawang, the split gate shows
the red brick construction, and strong geometric lines of Majapahit
architecture. Located at Jatipasar, Trowulan, East Java.
Main articles: Singhasari and Majapahit
Despite a lack
of historical evidence, it is known that Majapahit was the most dominant of
Indonesia's pre-Islamic states.[19] The
Hindu Majapahit kingdom
was founded in eastern Java in the late 13th century, and under Gajah Mada it
experienced what is often referred to as a "Golden Age" in Indonesian
history,[20] when
its influence extended to much of southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra,
and Bali[citation needed] from about
1293 to around 1500.
The founder of
the Majapahit Empire, Kertarajasa, was the son-in-law of the ruler of
the Singhasari kingdom,
also based in Java. After Singhasari drove Srivijaya out of Java in 1290, the
rising power of Singhasari came to the attention of Kublai Khan in
China and he sent emissaries demanding tribute. Kertanagara,
ruler of the Singhasari kingdom, refused to pay tribute and the Khan sent
a punitive expedition which arrived off the
coast of Java in 1293. By that time, a rebel fromKediri, Jayakatwang, had killed
Kertanagara. The Majapahit founder allied himself with the Mongols against
Jayakatwang and, once the Singhasari kingdom was destroyed, turned and forced
his Mongol allies to withdraw in confusion.
Gajah Mada,
an ambitious Majapahit prime minister and regent from 1331 to 1364, extended
the empire's rule to the surrounding islands. A few years after Gajah Madah's
death, the Majapahit navy captured Palembang, putting an end to the Srivijayan
kingdom. Although the Majapahit rulers extended their power over other islands
and destroyed neighbouring kingdoms, their focus seems to have been on
controlling and gaining a larger share of the commercial trade that passed
through the archipelago. About the time Majapahit was founded, Muslim traders
and proselytisers began
entering the area. After its peak in the 14th century, Majapahit power began to
decline and was unable to control the rising power of the Sultanate of Malacca. Dates for the end of
the Majapahit Empire range from 1478 to 1520. A large number of courtiers,
artisans, priests, and members of the royal family moved east to the island
of Bali at
the end of Majapahit power.
The age of
Islamic states
The spread of
Islam
Main article: The spread of Islam in Indonesia
The earliest
accounts of the Indonesian archipelago date from the Abbasid
Caliphate, according to those early accounts the Indonesian
archipelago were famous among early Muslim Sailorsmainly
due to its abundance of precious spice trade commodities
such as Nutmeg, Cloves, Galangal and
many other spices.[21][22]
Although Muslim
traders first traveled through South East Asia early in the Islamic era,
the The spread of Islam among
the inhabitants of the Indonesian archipelago dates to the 13th century in
northern Sumatra.[23] Although
it is known that the spread of Islam began in the west of the archipelago, the
fragmentary evidence does not suggest a rolling wave of conversion through
adjacent areas; rather, it suggests the process was complicated and slow.[23] The
spread of Islam was driven by increasing trade links outside of the
archipelago; in general, traders and the royalty of major kingdoms were the
first to adopt the new religion.[24]
Other
Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, making it the dominant religion
in Java and
Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. For the most part, Islam overlaid and
mixed with existing cultural and religious influences, which shaped the
predominant form of Islam in Indonesia, particularly in Java.[24] Only Bali retained a Hindu
majority. In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and Islamic missionaries
were active in the 16th and 17th centuries, and, currently, there are large
communities of both religions on these islands.[24]
Sultanate of
Mataram
Main article: Sultanate of Mataram
The cemetery compound of MataramSultans in Kota Gede, Yogyakarta.
The Sultanate
of Mataram was the third Sultanate in Java, after the Sultanate of Demak Bintoro and the
Sultanate of Pajang.
According to
Javanese records, Kyai Gedhe Pamanahan became the ruler of
the Mataram area in the 1570s with the support of the kingdom of Pajangto the
east, near the current site of Surakarta (Solo).
Pamanahan was often referred to as Kyai Gedhe Mataram after his ascension.
Pamanahan's
son, Panembahan Senapati
Ingalaga, replaced his father on the throne around 1584. Under
Senapati the kingdom grew substantially through regular military campaigns
against Mataram's neighbors. Shortly after his accession, for example, he
conquered his father's patrons in Pajang.
The reign of
Panembahan Seda ing
Krapyak (c. 1601–1613), the son of Senapati, was
dominated by further warfare, especially against powerfulSurabaya,
already a major center in East Java. The first contact between Mataram and
the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
occurred under Krapyak. Dutch activities at the time were limited to trading
from limited coastal settlements, so their interactions with the inland Mataram
kingdom were limited, although they did form an alliance against Surabaya in
1613. Krapyak died that year.
Krapyak was
succeeded by his son, who is known simply as Sultan Agung ("Great Sultan")
in Javanese records. Agung was responsible for the great expansion and lasting
historical legacy of Mataram due to the extensive military conquests of his
long reign from 1613 to 1646.
After years of
war Agung finally conquered Surabaya. The city surrounded by land and sea and
starved it into submission. With Surabaya brought into the empire, the Mataram
kingdom encompassed all of central and eastern Java, and Madura; only in
the west did Banten and
the Dutch settlement in Batavia remain outside Agung's control. He tried
repeatedly in the 1620s and 1630s to drive the Dutch from Batavia, but his
armies had met their match, and he was forced to share control over Java.
In 1645 he
began building Imogiri, his burial place, about fifteen kilometers south of
Yogyakarta. Imogiri remains the resting place of most of the royalty of
Yogyakarta and Surakarta to this day. Agung died in the spring of 1646, with
his image of royal invincibility shattered by his losses to the Dutch, but he
did leave behind an empire that covered most of Java and its neighboring
islands.
Upon taking the
throne, Agung's son Susuhunan Amangkurat I tried to bring long-term
stability to Mataram's realm, murdering local leaders that were insufficiently
deferential to him, and closing ports so he alone had control over trade with
the Dutch.
By the
mid-1670s dissatisfaction with the king fanned into open revolt. Raden Trunajaya, a prince
from Madura, lead a revolt fortified by itinerant mercenaries from Makassar that
captured the king's court at Mataram in mid-1677. The king escaped to the north
coast with his eldest son, the future king Amangkurat II, leaving his younger son
Pangeran Puger in Mataram. Apparently more interested in profit and revenge
than in running a struggling empire, the rebel Trunajaya looted the court and
withdrew to his stronghold in East Java leaving Puger in control of a weak
court.
Amangkurat I
died just after his expulsion, making Amangkurat II king in 1677. He too was
nearly helpless, though, having fled without an army or treasury to build one.
In an attempt to regain his kingdom, he made substantial concessions to the
Dutch, who then went to war to reinstate him. For the Dutch, a stable Mataram
empire that was deeply indebted to them would help ensure continued trade on
favorable terms. They were willing to lend their military might to keep the
kingdom together. Dutch forces first captured Trunajaya, then forced Puger to
recognize the sovereignty of his elder brother Amangkurat II. The kingdom
collapsed after a two-year war, in which power plays
crippled the Sunan.
The Sultanate
of Banten
Main article: The Sultanate of Banten
In 1524–25,
Sunan Gunung Jati from Cirebon, together with the armies of Demak
Sultanate, seized the port of Banten from the Sunda kingdom,
and established The Sultanate of Banten. This was
accompanied by Muslim preachers and the adoption of Islam amongst the local
population. At its peak in the first half of the 17th century, the Sultanate
lasted from 1526 to 1813 AD. The Sultanate left many archaeological remains and
historical records.[25]
Colonial era
Beginning in
the 16th century, successive waves of Europeans—the Portuguese,
Spanish, Dutch and British—sought to dominate the spice trade at its sources
in India and
the 'Spice Islands' (Maluku) of Indonesia. This meant finding a way
to Asia to cut out Muslim merchants who, with their Venetian outlet in the Mediterranean,
monopolised spice imports to Europe. Astronomically priced at the time, spices
were highly coveted not only to preserve and make poorly preserved meat
palatable, but also as medicines and magic potions.
The arrival of
Europeans in South East Asia is often regarded as the watershed moment in its
history. Other scholars consider this view untenable,[26] arguing
that European influence during the times of the early arrivals of the sixteenth
and 17th centuries was limited in both area and depth. This is in part due to
Europe not being the most advanced or dynamic area of the world in the early
15th century. Rather, the major expansionist force of this time was Islam; in
1453, for example, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople,
while Islam continued to spread through Indonesia and the Philippines.
European influence, particularly that of the Dutch, would not have its greatest
impact on Indonesia until the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Portuguese
Main article: The Portuguese in Indonesia
The nutmeg plant
is native to Indonesia's Banda Islands. Once one of the world's most
valuable commodities, it drew the first European colonial powers to Indonesia.
New found
Portuguese expertise in navigation, ship building and weaponry allowed them to
make daring expeditions of exploration and expansion. Starting with the first
exploratory expeditions sent from newly conquered Malacca in
1512, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Indonesia, and
sought to dominate the sources of valuable spices[27] and
to extend the Roman Catholic church's missionary efforts.
The Portuguese turned east to Maluku and through both military conquest and
alliance with local rulers, they established trading posts, forts, and missions
on the islands of Ternate, Ambon,
and Solor among
others. The height of Portuguese missionary activities, however, came at the
latter half of the 16th century. Ultimately, the Portuguese presence in
Indonesia was reduced to Solor, Flores and Timor in
modern day Nusa Tenggara, following defeat at the hands of indigenous
Ternateans and the Dutch in Maluku, and a general failure to maintain control
of trade in the region.[28] In
comparison with the original Portuguese ambition to dominate Asian trade, their
influence on Indonesian culture was small: the romantic keroncong guitar
ballads; a number of Indonesian words which reflect Portuguese’s role as the lingua
franca of the archipelago alongside Malay;
and many family names in eastern Indonesia such as da Costa, Dias, de Fretes,
Gonsalves, etc. The most significant impacts of the Portuguese arrival were the
disruption and disorganisation of the trade network mostly as a result of their
conquest of Malacca,
and the first significant plantings of Christianity in Indonesia. There have
continued to be Christian communities in eastern Indonesia through to the
present, which has contributed to a sense of shared interest with Europeans,
particularly among the Ambonese.[29]
Dutch
East-India Company
An early 18th century Dutch map from a
time when only the north coastal ports of Java were well known to the Dutch
In 1602, the
Dutch parliament awarded the VOC a monopoly on trade and colonial activities in
the region at a time before the company controlled any territory in Java. In
1619, the VOC conquered the West Javan city of Jayakarta, where they founded
the city of Batavia (present-day Jakarta).
The VOC became deeply involved in the internal politics of Java in
this period, and fought in a number of wars involving the leaders of Mataram and Banten.
The Dutch
followed the Portuguese aspirations, courage, brutality and strategies but
brought better organisation, weapons, ships, and superior financial backing.
Although they failed to gain complete control of the Indonesian spice trade,
they had much more success than the previous Portuguese efforts. They exploited
the factionalisation of the small kingdoms in Java that had replaced Majapahit,
establishing a permanent foothold in Java, from which grew a land-based
colonial empire which became one of the world's richest colonial possessions.[29]
Dutch state
rule
Batavian (Jakarta) tea factory in the
1860s
After the VOC
was dissolved in 1800 following bankruptcy,[27] and
after a short British rule under Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Dutch state
took over the VOC possessions in 1816. A Javanese uprising was crushed in
the Java War of
1825–1830. After 1830 a system of forced cultivations and indentured labour was
introduced on Java, the Cultivation System (in Dutch: cultuurstelsel).
This system brought the Dutch and their Indonesian collaborators enormous
wealth. The cultivation system tied peasants to their land, forcing them to
work in government-owned plantations for 60 days of the year. The system was
abolished in a more liberal period after
1870. In 1901 the Dutch adopted what they called the Ethical
Policy, which included somewhat increased investment in indigenous
education, and modest political reforms.
The Dutch
colonialists formed a privileged upper social class of soldiers,
administrators, managers, teachers and pioneers. They lived together with the
"natives", but at the top of a rigid social and racial caste system.[30][31] The
Dutch East Indies had two legal classes of citizens; European and indigenous. A
third class, Foreign Easterners, was added in 1920.[32]
Upgrading the
infrastructure of ports and roads was a high priority for the Dutch, with the
goal of modernizing the economy, pumping wages into local areas, facilitating
commerce, and speeding up military movements. By 1950 Dutch engineers had built
and upgraded a road network with 12,000 km of asphalted surface,
41,000 km of metalled road area and 16,000 km of gravel surfaces.[33] In
addition the Dutch built 7,500 kilometers (4,700 mi) of railways, bridges,
irrigation systems covering 1.4 million hectares (5,400 sq mi) of rice fields,
several harbours, and 140 public drinking water systems. These Dutch
constructed public works became the economic base of the colonial state; after
independence they became the basis of the Indonesian infrastructure.[34]
For most of the
colonial period, Dutch control over its territories in the Indonesian
archipelago was tenuous. In some cases, Dutch police and military actions in
parts of Indonesia were quite cruel. Recent discussions, for example, of Dutch
cruelty in Aceh have
encouraged renewed research on these aspects of Dutch rule.[35] It
was only in the early 20th century, three centuries after the first Dutch
trading post, that the full extent of the colonial territory was established
and direct colonial rule exerted across what would become the boundaries of the
modern Indonesian state.[36]Portuguese
Timor, now East Timor, remained under Portuguese rule
until 1975 when it was invaded by Indonesia. The Indonesian government declared
the territory an Indonesian province but relinquished it in 1999.
The emergence
of Indonesia
Indonesian
National Awakening
Main article: Indonesian National Awakening
Sukarno, Indonesian Nationalist leader,
and later, first president of Indonesia
In October
1908, the first nationalist movement was formed, Budi Utomo.[37] On
September 10, 1912, the first nationalist mass movement was formed--Sarekat Islam.[38] By
December 1912, Sarekat Islam had 93,000 members.[17] The
Dutch responded after the First World War with repressive measures. The
nationalist leaders came from a small group of young professionals and
students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands. In the post–World
War I era, the Indonesian communists who were associated with the Third International started to usurp the
nationalist movement.[39] The
repression of the nationalist movement led to many arrests, including
Indonesia's first president, Sukarno (1901–70), who was imprisoned for political
activities on December 29, 1929.[40]Also
arrested was Mohammad Hatta, first Vice-President of
Indonesia.[41] Additionally,
Sutan Sjahrir, who later became the first Prime Minister of Indonesia, was
arrested on this date.[42]
In 1914 exiled
Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet founded the Indies Social Democratic Association.
Initially a small forum of Dutch socialists, it would later evolve into
the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in
1924.[43] In
the post–World War I era, the Dutch strongly repressed all attempts at change.
This repression led to a growth of the PKI. By December 1924, the PKI had a
membership of 1,140.[17] One
year later in 1925, the PKI had grown to 3,000 members.[17] In
1926 thru 1927, there was a PKI-led revolt against the Dutch colonialism and
the harsh repression based on strikes of urban workers.[44] However,
the strikes and the revolt was put down by the Dutch with some 13,000
nationalists and communists leaders arrested.[17] Some
4,500 were given prison sentences.[45]
Sukarno was
released from prison in December 1931.[46] However,
Sukarno was re-arrested again on August 1, 1933.[47]
Japanese
occupation
Main article: Japanese occupation of Indonesia
The Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation during
World War II ended Dutch rule,[48] and
encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement. In May
1940, early in World War II, the Netherlands was occupied
by Nazi Germany.
The Dutch East Indies declared a state of siege and in July redirected exports
for Japan to the US and Britain. Negotiations with the Japanese aimed at
securing supplies of aviation fuel collapsed in June 1941, and the Japanese
started their conquest of Southeast Asia in December of that year.[49] That
same month, factions from Sumatra sought Japanese assistance for a revolt
against the Dutch wartime government. The last Dutch forces were defeated by
Japan in March 1942.
In July
1942, Sukarno accepted
Japan's offer to rally the public in support of the Japanese war effort. Sukarno and Mohammad
Hatta were decorated by the Emperor of Japan in 1943. However,
experience of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia varied considerably,
depending upon where one lived and one's social position. Many who lived in
areas considered important to the war effort experienced torture, sex slavery,
arbitrary arrest and execution, and other war crimes.
Thousands taken away from Indonesia as war labourers (romusha) suffered or died
as a result of ill-treatment and starvation. People of Dutch and mixed Dutch-Indonesian descent
were particular targets of the Japanese occupation.
In March 1945
Japan organized an Indonesian committee (BPUPKI) on independence. At its first
meeting in May, Soepomo spoke of national integration and against
personal individualism; while Muhammad Yamin suggested that the new nation
should claim Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya,
Portuguese Timor, and all the pre-war territories of the Dutch East Indies. The
committee drafted the 1945 Constitution, which remains in force, though now
much amended. On 9 August 1945 Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were
flown to meet Marshal Hisaichi
Terauchi in Vietnam. They were told that Japan intended to
announce Indonesian independence on 24 August. After the Japanese surrender
however, Sukarno unilaterally proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August.
Indonesian
National Revolution
Main article: Indonesian National Revolution
Indonesian flag raising shortly after
the declaration of independence.
Under pressure
from radical and politicised pemuda ('youth') groups, Sukarno
and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence,
on 17 August 1945, two days after the Japanese Emperor’s surrender in the Pacific. The following
day, the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP) declared SukarnoPresident, and Hatta Vice President.[50] Word
of the proclamation spread by shortwave and fliers while the Indonesian
war-time military (PETA), youths, and others rallied in support of the new
republic, often moving to take over government offices from the Japanese.
The Netherlands,
initially backed by the British, tried to re-establish their rule,[51] and
a bitter armed and diplomatic struggle ended in December 1949, when in the face
of international pressure, the Dutch formally recognised Indonesian
independence.[52] Dutch
efforts to re-establish complete control met resistance. At the end of World
War II, a power vacuum arose, and the nationalists often succeeded in seizing
the arms of the demoralised Japanese. A period of unrest with city guerrilla
warfare called the Bersiap period ensued. Groups of Indonesian nationalists
armed with improvised weapons (like bamboo spears) and firearms attacked
returning Allied troops. 3,500 Europeans were killed and 20,000 were missing,
meaning there were more European deaths in Indonesia after the war than during
the war. After returning to Java, Dutch forces quickly re-occupied the colonial
capital of Batavia (now Jakarta), so the city of Yogyakarta in
central Java became the capital of the nationalist forces. Negotiations with
the nationalists led to two major truce agreements, but disputes about their
implementation, and much mutual provocation, led each time to renewed conflict.
Within four years the Dutch had recaptured almost the whole of Indonesia, but
guerrilla resistance, led on Java by commander Nasution persisted. On 27 December
1949, after four years of sporadic warfare and fierce criticism of the Dutch by
the UN, the Netherlands officially recognised Indonesian sovereignty under
the federal structure of the United States of Indonesia (RUSI). On
17 August 1950, exactly five years after the proclamation of independence, the last
of the federal states were dissolved and Sukarno proclaimed a single unitary
Republic of Indonesia.[53]
Sukarno's
presidency
Democratic
experiment
Main article: Liberal democracy period in Indonesia
Campaign posters for the 1955
Indonesian election.
With the
unifying struggle to secure Indonesia's independence over, divisions in
Indonesian society began to appear. These included regional differences in
customs, religion, the impact of Christianity and Marxism, and fears of
Javanese political domination. Following colonial rule, Japanese occupation,
and war against the Dutch, the new country suffered from severe poverty, a
ruinous economy, low educational and skills levels, and authoritarian
traditions.[54] Challenges
to the authority of the Republic included the militant Darul Islam who waged a guerrilla
struggle against the Republic from 1948 to 1962; the declaration of an
independent Republic of South Maluku by Ambonese formerly
of the Royal Dutch Indies Army; and rebellions in Sumatra and Sulawesi between
1955 and 1961.
In contrast to
the 1945 Constitution, the 1950 constitution mandated
a parliamentary system of government, an executive responsible to the
parliament, and stipulated at length constitutional guarantees for human
rights, drawing heavily on the 1948 United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[55] A
proliferation of political parties dealing for shares of cabinet seats resulted
in a rapid turnover of coalition governments including 17 cabinets between 1945
and 1958. The long-postponed parliamentary elections were held in 1955;
the Indonesian National Party (PNI)—considered
Sukarno's party—topped the poll, and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI)
received strong support, but no party garnered more than a quarter of the
votes, which resulted in short-lived coalitions.[56]
Guided
Democracy
Coat of Arms of the Republic of
Indonesia, adopted 1950
By 1956,
Sukarno was openly criticising parliamentary democracy, stating that it was
"based upon inherent conflict" which ran counter to Indonesian
notions of harmony as being the natural state human relationships. Instead, he
sought a system based on the traditional village system of discussion and
consensus, under the guidance of village elders. He proposed a threefold blend
of nasionalisme ('nationalism'), agama ('religion'),
and komunisme ('communism') into a co-operative 'Nas-A-Kom'
government. This was intended to appease the three main factions in Indonesian
politics — the army, Islamic groups, and the communists. With the support
of the military, he proclaimed in February 1957, 'Guided Democracy', and proposed a cabinet
of representing all the political parties of importance (including the PKI).[56] The
US tried and failed to secretly overthrow the President, while Secretary of
State Dulles declared before Congress that "we are not interested in the
internal affairs of this country." [57]
Sukarno
abrogated the 1950 Constitution on
9 July 1959 by a decree dissolving
the Constitutional Assembly and
restoring the 1945 Constitution.[56] The
elected parliament was replaced by one appointed by, and subject to the will
of, the President. Another non-elected body, the Supreme Advisory Council, was
the main policy development body, while the National Front was set up in
September 1960 and presided over by the president to "mobilise the
revolutionary forces of the people".[56] Western-style
parliamentary democracy was thus finished in Indonesia until the 1999 elections
of the Reformasi era.[56]
Sukarno's
revolution and nationalism
Charismatic
Sukarno spoke as a romantic revolutionary, and under his increasingly
authoritarian rule, Indonesia moved on a course of stormy nationalism. Sukarno
was popularly referred to asbung ("older brother"), and
he painted himself as a man of the people carrying the aspirations of Indonesia
and one who dared take on the West.[58] He
instigated a number of large, ideologically driven infrastructure projects and
monuments celebrating Indonesia's identity, which were criticised as
substitutes for real development in a deteriorating economy.[58]
Western New Guinea had been part of the
Dutch East Indies, and Indonesian nationalists had thus claimed it on this
basis. Indonesia was able to instigate a diplomatic and military confrontation
with the Dutch over the territory following an Indonesian-Soviet arms agreement
in 1960. It was, however, United States pressure on the Netherlands that led to
an Indonesian takeover in 1963.[59]Also
in 1963, Indonesia commenced Konfrontasi with
the new state of Malaysia. The northern states of Borneo, formerly
British Sarawak and Sabah, had wavered in
joining Malaysia, whilst Indonesia saw itself as the rightful rulers of
the Malay race and
supported an unsuccessful revolution attempt in Brunei.[59] Reviving
the glories of the Indonesian National Revolution, Sukarno rallied against
notions of British imperialism mounting military offensives along the
Indonesia-Malaysia border in Borneo. As the PKI rallied in Jakarta streets in
support, the West became increasingly alarmed at Indonesian foreign policy and
the United States withdrew its aid to Indonesia.[59]
Indonesia's
economic position continued to deteriorate; by the mid-1960s, the cash-strapped
government had to scrap critical public sector subsidies, inflation was at
1,000%, export revenues were shrinking, infrastructure crumbling, and factories
were operating at minimal capacity with negligible investment.
Severe poverty and hunger were widespread.[59][60]
The New Order
Transition to
the New Order
Main article: Transition to the New Order
See also: 30 September Movement and Indonesian killings of 1965–1966
Described as
the great dalang ("puppet master"), Sukarno's
position depended on balancing the opposing and increasingly hostile forces of
the army and PKI. Sukarno's anti-imperial ideology saw Indonesia increasingly
dependent on Soviet and then communist China. By 1965, the PKI was the largest
communist party in the world outside the Soviet Union or China. Penetrating all
levels of government, the party increasingly gained influence at the expense of
the army.
On September
30, 1965, six of the most senior generals within the military and other
officers were executed in an attempted coup. The insurgents, known later as
the 30 September Movement, backed a rival
faction of the army and took up positions in the capital, later seizing control
of the national radio station. They claimed they were acting against a plot
organised by the generals to overthrow Sukarno. Within a few hours, Major General
Suharto, commander of the Army Strategic Reserve (Kostrad),
mobilised counteraction, and by the evening of 1 October, it was clear the
coup, which had little coordination and was largely limited to Jakarta, had
failed. Complicated and partisan theories continue
to this day over the identity of the attempted coup's organisers and their
aims. According to the Indonesian army, the PKI were behind the coup and used
disgruntled army officers to carry it out, and this became the official account
of Suharto's subsequent New Order administration. Most
historians agree that the coup and the surrounding events were not led by a
single mastermind controlling all events, and that the full truth will never
likely be known.
While the PKI's
role in the events of the night of 30 September-1 October remains debated, the
effects on it were devastating. The PKI was blamed for the coup, and
anti-communists, initially following the army's lead, and encouraged by Western
embassies,[61] went
on a violent anti-communist purge across
much of the country. The PKI was effectively destroyed,[62] and
the most widely accepted estimates are that between 500,000 and one million
people were killed.[63] The
violence was especially brutal in Java and Bali. The PKI was outlawed and
possibly more than 1 million of its leaders and affiliates were imprisoned.[64]
Throughout the
1965–66 period, President Sukarno attempted to restore his political position
and shift the country back to its pre-October 1965 position but his Guided
Democracy balancing act was destroyed with the PKI’s destruction. Although he
remained president, the weakened Sukarno was forced to transfer key political
and military powers to General Suharto, who by that time had become head of the
armed forces. In March 1967, the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly
(MPRS) named General Suharto acting president. Suharto was formally appointed
president in March 1968. Sukarno lived under virtual house arrest until his
death in 1970.
Entrenchment of
the New Order
Main article: New Order (Indonesia)
Suharto was the military president of
Indonesia from 1967 to 1998
In the
aftermath of Suharto's rise, hundreds of thousands of people were killed or
imprisoned by the military and religious groups in a backlash against alleged
communist supporters.[65] Suharto's
administration is commonly called the New Order era.[66] Suharto
invited major foreign investment, which produced substantial, if uneven,
economic growth. However, Suharto enriched himself and his family through
business dealings and widespread corruption.[67]
Annexation of
West Irian
See also: Western New Guinea
At the time of
independence, the Dutch retained control over the western half of New Guinea,
and permitted steps toward self-government and a declaration of independence on
December 1, 1961. After negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of the
territory into Indonesia failed, an Indonesian paratroop invasion December 18
preceded armed clashes between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961 and 1962. In
1962 the United States pressured the Netherlands into secret talks with
Indonesia which in August 1962 produced the New York Agreement, and Indonesia assumed
administrative responsibility for West Irian on May 1, 1963.
Rejecting UN
supervision, the Indonesian government under Suharto decided to settle the
question of West Irian, the former Dutch New Guinea, in their favor. Rather
than a referendum of all residents of West Irian as had been agreed under
Sukarno, an "Act of Free Choice" was conducted 1969 in
which 1,025 Papuan representatives of local councils were selected by the
Indonesians. After training in Indonesian language they were warned to
vote in favor of Indonesian integration with the group unanimously voting for
integration with Indonesia.[citation needed] A
subsequent UN General Assembly resolution confirmed the transfer of sovereignty
to Indonesia.
West Irian was
renamed Irian Jaya ('glorious Irian') in 1973.
Opposition to Indonesian administration of Irian Jaya (later known as Papua) gave rise to small-scale guerrilla
activity in the years following Jakarta's assumption of control.
Annexation of
East Timor
See also: History of East Timor
In 1975,
the Carnation Revolution in Portugal
caused authorities there to announce plans for decolonisation of Portuguese
Timor, the eastern half of the island of Timor whose western
half was a part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. In the elections held in
1975, Fretilin,
a left-leaning party and UDT, aligned with the local elite, emerged as the
largest parties, having previously formed an alliance to campaign for
independence from Portugal. Apodeti, a party advocating integration with
Indonesia, enjoyed little popular support.
Indonesia
alleged that Fretilin was communist, and feared that an independent East Timor
would influence separatism in the archipelago. Indonesian military intelligence
influenced the break-up of the alliance between Fretilin and UDT, which led to
a coup by the UDT on August 11, 1975, and a month-long civil war. During this
time, the Portuguese government effectively abandoned the territory, and did
not resume the decolonisation process. On November 28, Fretilin unilaterally declared independence,
and proclaimed the 'Democratic Republic of East Timor'. Nine days later, on
December 7, Indonesia invaded East Timor, eventually annexing the tiny country
of (then) 680,000 people. Indonesia was supported materially and diplomatically
by the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom who regarded Indonesia
as an anti-communist ally.
Following the
1998 resignation of Suharto, on August 30, 1999, the people of East Timor voted
overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum.
About 99% of the eligible population participated; more than three quarters
chose independence despite months of attacks by the Indonesian military and its
militia. After the result was announced, elements of the Indonesian military
and its militia retaliated by killing approximately 2,000 East Timorese,
displacing two-thirds of the population, raping hundreds of women and girls,
and destroying much of the country's infrastructure. In October 1999, the
Indonesian parliament (MPR) revoked the decree that annexed East Timor, and
the United
Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor(UNTAET) assumed
responsibility for governing East Timor until it officially became an
independent state in May 2002.
Transmigration
Main article: Transmigration program
The
Transmigration program (Transmigrasi) was a National Government
initiative to move landless people from densely populated areas of Indonesia (such
as Java and Bali) to less populous
areas of the country including Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra,
and Sulawesi.
The stated purpose of this program was to reduce the considerable poverty and
overpopulation on Java, to provide opportunities for hard-working poor
people, and to provide a workforce to better utilise the resources of the outer
islands. The program, however, has been controversial with critics accusing the
Indonesian Government of trying to use these migrants to reduce the proportion
of native populations in receiving areas, in order to weaken separatist
movements. The program has often been cited as a major and ongoing factor in
controversies and even conflict and violence between settlers and indigenous
populations.
Reformation Era
See also: Indonesian Revolution of 1998
Pro-democracy
movement
University students and police forces
clash in May 1998.
In 1996 Suharto
undertook efforts to pre-empt a challenge to the New Order government.
The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), a
legal party that had traditionally propped up the regime had changed direction,
and began to assert its independence. Suharto fostered a split over the
leadership of PDI, backing a co-opted faction loyal to deputy speaker of
the People's Representative Council Suryadi
against a faction loyal to Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter
of Sukarno and
the PDI's chairperson.
After the
Suryadi faction announced a party congress to sack Megawati would be held
in Medan on
June 20–22, Megawati proclaimed that her supporters would hold demonstrations
in protest. The Suryadi faction went through with its sacking of Megawati, and
the demonstrations manifested themselves throughout Indonesia. This led to
several confrontations on the streets between protesters and security forces,
and recriminations over the violence. The protests culminated in the military
allowing Megawati's supporters to take over PDI headquarters in Jakarta, with a
pledge of no further demonstrations.
Suharto allowed
the occupation of PDI headquarters to go on for almost a month, as attentions
were also on Jakarta due
to a set of high-profile ASEANmeetings scheduled to take place there. Capitalizing on
this, Megawati supporters organized "democracy forums" with several
speakers at the site. On July 26, officers of the military, Suryadi, and
Suharto openly aired their disgust with the forums.[68]
On July 27,
police, soldiers, and persons claiming to be Suryadi supporters stormed the
headquarters. Several Megawati supporters were killed, and over two-hundred
arrested and tried under the Anti-Subversion and Hate-Spreading laws. The day
would become known as "Black Saturday" and mark the beginning of a
renewed crackdown by the New Order government against supporters of democracy,
now called the "Reformasi" or Reformation.[69]
Economic crisis
and Suharto's resignation
In 1997 and
1998, Indonesia was the country hardest hit by the East Asian Financial Crisis,[70] which
had dire consequences for the Indonesian economy and society, and Suharto's
presidency. At the same time, the country suffered a severe drought and some of
the largest forest fires in history burned in Kalimantan and Sumatra. The rupiah, the
Indonesian currency, took a sharp dive in value. Suharto came under scrutiny
from international lending institutions, chiefly the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the United States, over longtime embezzlement of funds and some protectionist policies.
In December, Suharto's government signed a letter of intent to the IMF,
pledging to enact austerity measures, including cuts to public services and
removal ofsubsidies,
in return for receiving the aid of the IMF and other donors. Prices for goods
such as kerosene and rice, and fees for public services including education
rose dramatically. The effects were exacerbated by widespread corruption.
The austerity measures
approved by Suharto had started to erode domestic confidence with the New Order[71] and
led to popular protests.
Suharto stood
for re-election by parliament for the seventh time in March 1998, justifying it
on the grounds of the necessity of his leadership during the crisis. The
parliament approved a new term. This sparked protests and riots throughout the
country, now termed the Indonesian 1998 Revolution. Dissent within
the ranks of his own Golkar party and the military finally weakened Suharto,
and on May 21 he stood down from power.[72] He
was replaced by his deputy Jusuf Habibie.
President
Habibie quickly assembled a cabinet. One of its main tasks was to
re-establish International Monetary Fund and donor
community support for an economic stabilization program. He moved quickly to
release political prisoners and lift some controls on freedom of speech and
association. Elections for the national, provincial, and sub-provincial
parliaments were held on June 7, 1999. For the national parliament, Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P,
led by Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri) won 34% of the
vote; Golkar (Suharto's
party; formerly the only legal party of government) 22%; United Development Party (PPP, led
by Hamzah Haz)
12%; and National Awakening Party (PKB, led
by Abdurrahman Wahid) 10%.
Politics since
1999
Indonesian 2009 election ballot, since
2004 Indonesian vote their president directly.
In October
1999, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which consists of the
500-member Parliament plus 200 appointed members, electedAbdurrahman
Wahid, commonly referred to as "Gus Dur" as President, and
Megawati Sukarnoputri as Vice President, for 5-year terms. Wahid named his
first Cabinet in early November 1999 and a reshuffled, second Cabinet in August
2000. President Wahid's government continued to pursue democratization and to
encourage renewed economic growth under challenging conditions. In addition to
continuing economic malaise, his government faced regional, interethnic, and
interreligious conflict, particularly in Aceh, the Maluku
Islands, and Irian Jaya. In West Timor,
the problems of displaced East Timorese and violence by pro-Indonesian East
Timorese militias caused considerable humanitarian and social problems. An
increasingly assertive Parliament frequently challenged President Wahid's
policies and prerogatives, contributing to a lively and sometimes rancorous
national political debate.
During the
People's Consultative Assembly's first annual session in August 2000, President
Wahid gave an account of his government's performance. On January 29, 2001
thousands of student protesters stormed parliament grounds and demanded that
President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption
scandals. Under pressure from the Assembly to improve management and
coordination within the government, he issued a presidential decree giving Vice
President Megawati control over the day-to-day administration of government.
Soon after, Megawati Sukarnoputri assumed the
presidency on July 23. In 2004, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won
Indonesia's first direct Presidential election and
in 2009 he was elected to
a second term.
Terrorism
Main article: Terrorism in Indonesia
As a
multi-ethnic and multi-culture democratic country with majority of moderate
Muslim population, Indonesia faces the challenges to deal with terrorism that
linked to global militant Islamic movement. The Jemaah
Islamiyah (JI) militant Islamic organization that aspired for
the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah[73] that
encompassed whole Southeast Asia including Indonesia, is responsible for series
of terrorist attacks in Indonesia. This terrorist organization that linked
to Al-Qaeda,
was responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, as well as Jakarta bombings in 2003, 2004, and 2009. Indonesian government, people and
authorities has eversince tried to crack down the terrorist cells in Indonesia.
Tsunami
disaster and Aceh peace deal
On 26 December
2004, a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated
parts of northern Sumatra, particularly Aceh. Partly as a result
of the need for cooperation and peace during the recovery from the tsunami in
Aceh, peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were restarted.
Accords signed in Helsinki created a framework for military de-escalation
in which the government has reduced its military presence, as members of GAM's
armed wing decommission their weapons and apply for amnesty. The agreement also
allows for Acehnese nationalist forces to form their own party, and other
autonomy measures.
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