Violence in Aceh

Violence in Aceh In April, after talks with Acehnese rebels broke down, President Wahid authorized his army commanders to restore law and order in Aceh, effectively resuming the war that has affected the province since the 1970s. In September, the Indonesian government sought to appease rebels in Aceh province, where violence had been on the increase since mid-August, by promising an honest and open dialogue....

Further violence in 2001

Further violence in 2001 In February 2001, indigenous Dayaks, who are mainly Christian or animist, killed between 500 and 1,000 Muslim Madurese in central Kalimantan, in Borneo. Thousands of people fled gangs armed with machetes and spears. After ten days, security forces took steps to regain control. 15,000 Madurese had been transported to Java, with another 20,000 guarded by the military in refugee camps in Sampit waiting to...

Renewed trouble in the provinces

Renewed trouble in the provincesIn December 1999, the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a 5,000-strong guerrilla force, effectively gained control of much of Aceh province. President Wahid rejected demands by the army to impose martial law to put down the GAM. In mid-December 1999 more sectarian fighting broke out in Maluku (the Moluccas). The riots were reported to be between Muslims and Christians, and brought the number of victims of religious killings in the archipelago...

Wahid's presidency

Wahid's presidencyThe Indonesian leader, B J Habibie, withdrew from the presidential race in October 1999 after he lost a key vote in the top legislature. The presidency went to Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of the National Awakening Party (PKB), and a moderate Muslim in poor health. By a remarkable 373 votes to 313, MPs voted him president of Indonesia. Wahid, a scholar best known by his nickname ‘Gus Dur’, had secured the support of some of those who had earlier backed the...

Corruption allegations against Suharto

Corruption allegations against SuhartoIn December 1998 the former president, Suharto, was formally questioned for the first time over allegations that he illegally amassed a fortune, estimated at between US$4–20 billion, during his 32 years in power. In October 1999, amid an atmosphere of mounting political tension, Indonesian legal authorities decided to drop a corruption investigation into financial irregularities allegedly committed by Suharto because of insufficient...

East Timor's independence referendum

East Timor's independence referendumIn mid-November 1998 44 civilians were reported, by the Catholic Church, to have been killed during a military crackdown against separatist rebels in southern East Timor. In January 1999 after months of increasing political pressure, the government consented to consider further the possibility of autonomy or even independence for East Timor, annexed by Indonesia in 1976. In April 1999, despite the signing of a peace agreement while talks...

Civil unrest and political reform

Civil unrest and political reformIn September 1998 there were riots and looting of houses and shops owned by the country's ethnic Chinese minority, caused by rising food prices, and student protesters demanded President Habibie's resignation. In November 1998 at least 16 people, some of them students, were killed after troops opened fire on demonstrators in Jakarta. The protests, which attracted 20,000 demonstrators, had been organized to coincide with a special session...

Suharto steps down

Suharto steps downOn 21 May 1998 President Suharto bowed down to the pressure and resigned from office. His constitutional successor, vice-president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, was sworn in. The commander of the country's armed forces, Gen Wiranto, pledged his support for the new president. Suharto's resignation met with cautious optimism, though certain opposition leaders warned that the nomination of Habibie, a life-long protégé of Suharto, would not hasten any significant...

Growing civil unrest

Growing civil unrestFrom February 1998, demonstrations began on university campuses, protesting against Suharto's re-election and calling for democratic reform. These continued, gathering momentum between March and May, in defiance of government bans. A series of student demonstrations in Jakarta, as well as in Medan, Yogyakarta, and Bandung in May led to clashes with police in which at least 12 students were killed and dozens injured. The students, who claimed their action...

Suharto re-elected

Suharto re-electedIn February 1998 Gen Wiranto became the new head of the armed forces and Suharto's 46-year-old son-in-law became commander of the Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad). President Suharto was elected to his seventh five-year term in early March 1998; he was the only candidate. He remained opposed to the economic reforms demanded by his critics and supported by the IMF. IMF officials were seeking to salvage the economic bail-out programme, a move particularly...

Economic crisis

Economic crisisForest fires that first blighted large areas of South Asia in 1997 continued to burn out of control on Indonesian territory in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in February 1998. About 1,000 forest fires were burning in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo, killing or putting to flight endangered species such as orang-utans and proboscis monkeys. A report published in February 1998 said that the 1997 haze caused US$1 billion of damage, most of it...

Financial crisis

Financial crisisIn response to the financial crisis generated by a sharp 30% depreciation in the value of the currency, the rupiah, it was announced in September 1997 that major construction projects, including roads, power stations, and oil refineries, would be postponed until the economy improved. In the province of Irian Jaya it was reported in October 1997 that more than 460 people had died from famine caused by prolonged drough...

Reform and repression

Reform and repression Improved living standards and economic reforms led to pressure for greater political reform and openness, and in April 1991 a 45-member Democracy Forum was launched by leading members of the country's religious and cultural intelligentsia. It was seen as an attempt to ventilate ideas about freedom in politics in what remained an authoritarian state. The government imposed strict limitations on the group's operations.International outrage followed...

Resettlement programmes

Resettlement programmes In 1984, in response to an OPM-organized rebellion in Irian Jaya, Suharto announced a stepping-up of his ‘transmigration programme’, aimed at resettling families from overpopulated Java, Madura, and Bali in sparsely populated outer islands, such as Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya, where interethnic friction was evident. Over 6 million people were relocated in this way, but transmigration was subsequently scaled down because of environmental...

Separatist wars

Separatist wars In 1975 Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. The area remained isolated (as a result of travel restrictions) until the early 1990s as the army fought to quash the secessionist movement, which was spearheaded by the Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin). An estimated 200,000 people out of a population of 700,000 died from war or related famine during this period. The United Nations refused to recognize Indonesia's claim to...

Suharto's ‘New Order’

Suharto's ‘New Order’Although not elected president until 1967, Suharto instituted a ‘New Order’ from 1966, with political power concentrated in the hands of a group of army and security-force officers. Sukarno's policies were reversed, and Suharto set about stabilizing a chaotic economy with the aid of a group of US economists nicknamed ‘The Berkeley Mafia’. Lavish incentives were introduced to encourage new foreign investment, assets nationalized by Sukarno were restored...

The overthrow of Sukarno

The overthrow of Sukarno Sukarno's nationalization programme and close relations with communist states alarmed the USA, especially when he challenged the two giant US oil companies Stanvac and Caltex.In October 1965 six army generals and their aides were kidnapped and murdered in an attempted coup. An unknown army officer, Gen Suharto, defeated the coup's leaders, undermining both Sukarno and the PKI, who were linked to the plot. There followed several months of mass political...

Indonesia under Sukarno

Indonesia under Sukarno The new republic had been planned as a federation of 16 constituent regions, but was made unitary in 1950. This led to dominance by Java (which has two-thirds of Indonesia's population), provoking revolts in Sumatra and the predominantly Christian South Maluku. Until approximately 1957 Indonesia experimented with a broadly democratic constitution, in the Western sense, but the general elections in 1955 failed to throw up any clear majority party,...

Independence achieved

Independence achieved As defeat loomed, the Japanese moved to grant Indonesia independence. They were forestalled when Sukarno declared independence on 17 August 1945. The British were entrusted with restoring Indonesia to Dutch colonial rule, and quickly found themselves engaged in armed confrontation with the nationalists. By the late 1940s the Dutch, who had taken over the task of suppression, were clearly losing, and the USA used the weapon of Marshall Aid (post-war...

Regional tensions and World War II

Regional tensions and World War II The great interwar depression hit the Netherlands East Indies very badly. To protect Dutch exports to the colony, the import of Japanese goods was restricted. To maintain the prices of important Dutch products, such as rubber and tin, production and export were deliberately curtailed. These moves were resented by both Japan and the USA. Japan depended upon economic access to Indonesia, and the USA – a major importer of tin and rubber –...

The beginnings of Indonesian nationalism

The beginnings of Indonesian nationalismAt the same time a nationalist movement was beginning to stir. Resistance to Dutch occupation had, of course, always existed, flaring up frequently in peasant risings and occasionally in national wars (such as that on Java from 1825 to 1830). Islam was a convenient symbol for resistance and nationalism: its spread through the archipelago had been accelerated by the arrival of the Spaniards and the Portuguese in the 16th century (as...

Dutch exploitation in the 19th century

Dutch exploitation in the 19th centuryThe Dutch attitude to Indonesia was unabashedly that the colony existed for the enrichment of the home country. When war and the secession of the southern provinces (now Belgium) bankrupted the Dutch exchequer, a system of forced labour, called the Cultuurstelsel (culture system) was imposed on Java in 1830. Under it, commercial crops were grown, under compulsion, by the Javanese peasantry for delivery to the Dutch, who shipped the...

The establishment of Dutch rule

The establishment of Dutch ruleFrom 1511 the Portuguese, followed closely by the English, set up trading posts throughout the archipelago. However, it was the Dutch who eventually won the lion's share of influence in what was to become the Netherlands East Indies. The Dutch East India Company established itself in Java, founding Batavia (now Indonesia's capital city Jakarta) in 1619. In the 17th century the Dutch had still only managed to establish trading centres, while...

The coming of the Europeans

The coming of the Europeans The wealth of the islands of Indonesia – the East Indies – was well known to Europeans from Greek and Roman times onwards, both by reputation and by such indirect trade as took place via the Middle East. It was, indeed, the riches of the ‘Spice Islands’ (Maluku, or the Moluccas) that drew the Portuguese and Spanish, sailing in different directions around the world, to the archipelago in the first place. The spices of the region were then, in...

History Of Indonesia

History Of Indonesia Indonesia's geographical location has always assured its historical prominence. The archipelago dominates the main lines of communication both west–east (from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the Pacific) and north–south (from the great Eurasian landmass to Australasia...

Indonesia & Government

IndonesiaCountry in southeast Asia, made up of 13,677 islands situated on or near the Equator, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's fourth most populous country, surpassed only by China, India, and the USA.GovernmentThe 1945 constitution (amended 1950 and 1969) is based on a state ideology, the Pancacila (Five Principles), of monotheism, humanitarianism, Indonesian unity...