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| Indonesia | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
Spice crops first attracted Europeans to the East Indies, but the tropical climate and rich volcanic soils offered a fertile laboratory for the introduction of new commercial crops such as sugar, coffee, and rubber. Large private plantations controlled by European and American interests became the backbone of the colonial economy in the late nineteenth century, when the Dutch colonial government began to limit the practice of tax collection by forced crop cultivation on village land. Even at the height of the plantation economy, however, small-scale peasant cultivators were competitive suppliers of a variety of commercial crops. In 1929, just before the world market collapse in the Great Depression, agricultural products were 75 percent of total Netherlands Indies exports, and about one-third of agricultural exports were from small-scale indigenous producers. Although sugar, then the single most important export crop, was entirely a plantation crop, a large share of rubber, next in export value to sugar, was supplied by smallholders; and coconut, then the third largest agricultural export, was produced almost exclusively by smallholders.
Although far less important in the overall economy, the estate crops were a significant share of exports and a vital source of income in the rural economy throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Smallholders continued to cultivate many estate crops grown on a large scale on government and privately owned plantations. Government-owned plantations were largely the legacy of nationalization of foreign estates during the 1950s, and restrictions on ownership still limited foreign participation, although joint ventures were not uncommon.
Rubber was generally the most valuable export crop, followed by coffee and oil palm. Exports of palm oil and coconut were periodically restricted to ensure adequate domestic supplies. A variety of other estate crops, including tobacco, pepper, tea, and cocoa, were also exported. Sugarcane was still cultivated but never regained its prominence after the collapse of the sugar industry during the Great Depression.
During the mid-1980s, the government initiated an ambitious plan to improve the technology and plant stock of small-scale producers. One of the Nucleus Estate Programs was a smallholder scheme that provided small plots of high-yielding tree crops to participating farmers in a determined location who shared the benefits of centralized technological and managerial assistance. A variety of difficulties were encountered with this strategy, and the planting area and productivity targets were rarely achieved. Outside observers criticized the nucleus-estate smallholder approach because only a small number of cultivators participated, leaving the majority of smallholders outside the nucleus estates without access to more productive hybrid tree stocks.
Rubber was cultivated on 3 million hectares of land in 1988, and about 80 percent of that area was owned by smallholders with holdings of two hectares or less. Smallholder cultivation was concentrated in Sumatra, especially in the provinces of Sumatera Utara, Riau, Jambi, and Sumatera Selatan. Some smallholder cultivation was found on Kalimantan, but less than 2 percent was outside Sumatra and Kalimantan. Government and private estates cultivated roughly equal areas, although private estates were subject to a legal maximum size varying by province, and so were smaller and more numerous than government estates. About 12 government-owned and more than 800 private rubber estates were concentrated in Sumatera Utara, Jawa Barat, Jawa Timur, and Kalimantan Tengah provinces.
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Arecaceae) was the newest and fastest growing tree crop in the 1980s. Ten government estates- -primarily in Sumatera Utara Province--were the major producers, although eighteen private estates accounted for about 25 percent of the total 655,000 hectares devoted to oil palm in 1988. Smallholder cultivation of oil palm was insignificant. Exports of palm oil also expanded rapidly in the late 1980s, making Indonesia a major supplier, with 10 percent of the world market in 1988.
Coconuts were cultivated almost exclusively by smallholders. In 1983 about 3 million hectares were devoted to coconut production throughout the archipelago, although a large share was on Java. In the early 1980s, the World Bank estimated that as much as 60 percent of coconut products were not sent to the market but instead consumed by the cultivators, in part because of low producer prices reflecting government administration of the domestic coconut trade. Indonesia was the second largest producer of coconuts in the world after the Philippines, but remained an insignificant exporter because of government restrictions and inadequate processing facilities.
Coffee also was cultivated almost entirely by smallholders but, in contrast, remained an important export crop throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Processing and marketing of coffee was undertaken by the private sector with little government intervention. Most Indonesian coffee trees were of the Robusta variety, which is more hardy but of lower quality than Arabica coffee. Cultivation was concentrated on Sumatra, especially Lampung Province, which accounted for almost 25 percent of the estimated 500,000 hectares of smallholder cultivation in 1978.
Smallholders, who owned nearly all of the livestock in the country, used their animals for draft power, manure, meat, and for future sale. Most livestock, including some 16 million goats and sheep, were simply tethered near the home or put out to pasture on communal grazing land. Beef cattle numbered over 10 million in 1989. The water buffalo, the most common draft animal, numbered 3.3 million. Several government-sponsored programs to increase livestock productivity through better extension services to livestock farmers and the expansion of ranching were in operation on the Outer Islands in the early 1990s. Since 1978 the government provided technical assistance to poultry farmers, particularly in or near urban areas. The government also made great efforts to improve the dissemination of superior breeds and modern medicines. Chickens were the fastest growing commercial livestock, numbering 508 million in 1989, an increase of 65 percent since 1984.
| Indonesia | Communications | Back to Top |
general assessment: domestic service fair, international service good domestic: interisland microwave system and HF radio police net; domestic satellite communications system international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean)
| Indonesia | Culture | Back to Top |
Indonesia's social and geographical environment is one of the most complex and varied in the world. By one count, at least 669 distinct languages and well over 1,100 different dialects are spoken in the archipelago. The nation encompasses some 13,667 islands; the landscape ranges from rain forests and steaming mangrove swamps to arid plains and snowcapped mountains. Major world religions--Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism--are represented. Political systems vary from the ornate sultans' courts of Central Java to the egalitarian communities of hunter-gatherers of Sumatran jungles. A wide variety of economic patterns also can be found within Indonesia's borders, from rudimentary slash-and- burn agriculture to highly sophisticated computer microchip assembly plants. Some Indonesian communities rely on traditional feasting systems and marriage exchange for economic distribution, while others act as sophisticated brokers in international trading networks operating throughout the South China Sea. Indonesians also have a wide variety of living arrangements. Some go home at night to extended families living in isolated bamboo longhouses, others return to hamlets of tiny houses clustered around a mosque, whereas still others go home to nuclear families in urban high-rise apartment complexes.
There are, however, striking similarities among the nation's diverse groups. Besides citizenship in a common nation-state, the single most unifying cultural characteristic is a shared linguistic heritage. Almost all of the nation's more than 195 million people speak one of several Austronesian languages, which--although not mutually intelligible--share many vocabulary items and have similar sentence patterns. Most important, the vast majority of the population can speak Bahasa Indonesia, the official national language. Used in government, schools, print and electronic media, and in multiethnic cities, this Malay-derived language is both an important unifying symbol and a vehicle of national integration.
Nearly 70 percent of Indonesians lived outside of cities, which, according to the definition used by the government's Central Bureau of Statistics, were areas with population densities greater than 5,000 persons per square kilometer or where less than 25 percent of the households were employed in the agricultural sector. Indeed, most Indonesians in the early 1990s, as their ancestors before them, were closely associated with agriculture, stockbreeding, or fishing. Whereas some isolated farming communities were comprised essentially of subsistence farmers--living off what they grew--most depended to some degree on cash profits earned from selling their produce at mercantile centers. Aside from coffee and rubber plantations, large-scale, highly capitalized agribusinesses, such as industrialized rice farming or chicken farms, remained the exception in Indonesia.
This pattern, however, was changing. Describing Indonesia's cultural and regional variety, American anthropologist Hildred Geertz in 1960 divided the population into three types: wet rice growing (padi) peasants of Java, Bali, and parts of southern Sumatra; coastal Islamic traders in the harbor regions of Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi; and isolated inland swidden farmers throughout the archipelago. In following decades, however, a fourth category emerged. It consisted of a largely urban middle class-- members of a modern Indonesian national superculture.
Over the course of the 1980s, population mobility, educational achievement, and urbanization increased as Indonesians were exposed to the varieties of their nation's cultures through television, newspapers, schools, and cultural activities. Linkages to native geographic region and sociocultural heritage weakened. Ethnicity became a means of identification in certain situations but not in others. For example, during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, peasants from Java might emphasize their Islamic faith and affiliation, whereas in other settings, they emphasized their membership in the national state by attending school, participating in family planning programs and belonging to village cooperatives, and by invoking the Pancasila, the state ideology, as a moral justification for personal and family choices. In a similar way, isolated hill tribes living in the interiors of the islands of Sulawesi, Seram, or Timor might express devotion to ancestral spirits through animal sacrifice at home, but swear loyalty to the Indonesian state in school and church, or at the polls. In the early 1990s one's identity as an Indonesian was still interwoven with one's familial, regional, and ethnic heritage.
| Indonesia | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines
note: as of 1 July 2000, the National Police became an independent organization that reports directly to the president
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 64,046,049 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 37,418,755 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 2,263,706 (2001 est.)
| Indonesia | International Disputes | Back to Top |
Sipadan and Ligitan Islands in dispute with Malaysia
| Indonesia | Economy | Back to Top |
Indonesia’s economy was oriented to providing raw materials to The Netherlands. Subsistence agriculture, primarily the production of rice, was the mainstay of most of the population, but the economy also relied on plantation agriculture, including the production of sugar and rubber. Industry was not promoted so as to avoid competing with The Netherlands. The first few decades after independence were marked by economic mismanagement. The government of President Sukarno focused on unifying the country politically, not on rebuilding Indonesia’s crumbling infrastructure or improving the economy. In contrast, President Suharto’s “New Order” government gave much more priority to the economy, instituting a series of five-year plans (Repelita) starting in 1969. The aims of Suharto’s economic policy were to expand foreign investment and increase trade. When export revenues from oil declined in the early and mid-1980s, Indonesia was forced to expand other exports. To make these exports more competitive internationally, the government deregulated parts of the economy such as coastal transportation, finance, and banking.
Indonesia has played a modest role in the world economy since independence, and its importance has been considerably less than its size, resources, and geographic position would seem to warrant. The country is a major exporter of petroleum, natural gas, and tin. In addition, Indonesia is one of the world's main suppliers of rubber and a less significant producer of a wide range of other commodities, such as coffee, tea, tobacco, copra, spices (cloves and nutmeg), and oil-palm products. Nearly all commodity production comes from large estates. Widespread exploration for deposits of oil and other minerals has resulted in a number of large-scale projects that have contributed substantially to general development funds. The projects have, however, tended to reinforce the general position of Indonesia as a supplier of raw materials to world markets.
Indonesia, a vast polyglot nation, faces severe economic problems, stemming from secessionist movements and the low level of security in the regions, the lack of reliable legal recourse in contract disputes, corruption, weaknesses in the banking system, and strained relations with the IMF. Investor confidence will remain low and few new jobs will be created under these circumstances. Growth of 4.8% in 2000 is not sustainable, being attributable to favorable short-term factors, including high world oil prices, a surge in nonoil exports, and increased domestic demand for consumer durables.
| Indonesia | Education | Back to Top |
The character of Indonesia's educational system reflects its diverse religious heritage, its struggle for a national identity, and the challenge of resource allocation in a poor but developing archipelagic nation with a young and rapidly growing population. Although a draft constitution stated in 1950 that a key government goal was to provide every Indonesian with at least six years of primary schooling, the aim of universal education had not been reached by the late 1980s, particularly among females--although great improvements had been made. Obstacles to meeting the government's goal included a high birth rate, a decline in infant mortality, and a shortage of schools and qualified teachers. In 1973 Suharto issued an order to set aside portions of oil revenues for the construction of new primary schools. This act resulted in the construction or repair of nearly 40,000 primary school facilities by the late 1980s, a move that greatly facilitated the goal of universal education.
Education in Indonesia was designed mainly to prepare Dutch children and the children of native elite for administrative tasks. In 1903 a primary school for Indonesian girls opened, and by 1940 a system of schools for native Indonesians existed alongside the elite Dutch system. Following independence in 1949, the new government tried to expand the educational system but was hampered by a lack of funds. In the late 1960s the government began promoting elementary education, which in Indonesia lasts for six years. Since 1990 compulsory education includes elementary schooling and three years of lower secondary schooling. An additional three years of upper secondary schooling are optional.
| Indonesia | Government | Back to Top |
Government: Unitary republic based on separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Constitution of 1945 in force, and power concentrated in presidency; mandate renewed by People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which meets every five years to elect president and vice president. Unicameral elected House of People's Representatives (DPR) shares legislative authority with MPR, which comprises members of DPR plus others appointed by central government. Supreme Court highest court of land.
Politics: Emphasis on consensus, unity, and controlled political development. Political ideologies other than Pancasila illegal. Since 1973 all political groups identified with three legal political organizations: Golkar, government surrogate party; and two opposition parties, Muslim-oriented United Development Party (PPP) and secularist Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). DPR elections every five years preceding MPR session. Golkar has held absolute majority since early 1970s.
Administrative Divisions: Twenty-four provinces (propinsi), two special regions (daerah istimewa), and one special capital city region (daerah khusus ibukota). These divisions subdivided into districts (kabupaten) and municipalities (kotamadya). Lower levels comprise subdistricts (kecamatan) and villages (desa).
Foreign Relations: Member of United Nations (UN), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Nonaligned Movement, and numerous other international organizations. Relations with all major nations based on principles of nonalignment.
| Indonesia | History | Back to Top |
Before european intrusions into the islands by Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch seeking to monopolize the lucrative trade in spices and other marketable products, the more than 13,000 islands constituting the Republic of Indonesia were home to a diverse array of cultures and civilizations that had been influenced by HinduBuddhist ideas from India and by Islam, as well as indigenous beliefs. Although the Portuguese and Spanish presence in the archipelago had limited impact, the Dutch United East India Company established a trading post on the north coast of Java--what later became known as Jakarta--seized control of the spice trade, and gradually asserted military and political control over the archipelago. This process of colonization was well advanced on Java by the mid-eighteenth century and largely completed in the rest of the archipelago by the first decade of the twentieth century.
Under both the VOC and, after 1816, the Netherlands Indies government, Dutch policies served essentially economic goals, namely the exploitation of Indonesia's rich endowment of natural resources. Indeed, during the mid-nineteenth century, the Cultivation System on Java--the forced growing of cash crops-- brought the Netherlands considerable profits. At the same time, however, a cycle of poverty and overpopulation emerged among Java's rural population. Modern scholars have debated the degree to which this cycle can be attributed to the Cultivation System. As a result of the cycle of poverty and overpopulation, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Dutch government sought to improve the welfare of the people under what was known as the Ethical Policy. But, although education and welfare facilities were expanded, the Dutch did little to promote self-government and did not recognize the people's aspirations for independence.
Indonesia was territorially a creation of Dutch imperialism: with the exception of Portuguese (East) Timor, it encompasses all the territories of the old Netherlands Indies. Intellectually, however, Indonesia was a creation of early twentieth century nationalists who sought cultural, linguistic, and social bases for national unity. Although deeply immersed in Javanese culture, Sukarno (1901-70), the most important pre-World War II nationalist and long-time president, envisioned a new republic reaching far beyond the Netherlands Indies--a Greater Indonesia--Indonesia Raya- -which would include northern Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
The Japanese occupation in the early 1940s shattered the Dutch colonial regime and opened up new opportunities for Indonesians to participate in politics, administration, and the military. Although Tokyo's primary goal was exploitation of natural resources, especially oil, vitally necessary for the war effort in other parts of Asia, the Japanese tolerated political movements by Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta (1902-80), and others, especially on Java. With the cooperation of some Japanese military officers, Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesia's independence on August 17, 1945, two days after Japan's surrender to the Allies. A revived Dutch administration, however, was determined to reimpose colonial control or as much colonial rule as they could manage. This not being possible, the Dutch sought to ensure that an independent Indonesia was regionally fragmented and maximally amenable to Dutch economic and other interests. This renewed oppression led the nationalists to wage a bitter war of independence--the National Revolution--between 1945 and 1949, which resulted in the shortlived federal Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RUSI) in 1950.
The new state faced ethnic, religious, and social divisions throughout the archipelago. Early 1950s' practices of parliamentary democracy ended with Sukarno's adoption of Guided Democracy in the 1959-65 period. Sukarno had a vast mass following, but his power base rested on the support of two antagonistic groups: the Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia (ABRI) and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). What has been officially described as a PKI attempted coup d'état on September 30, 1965, resulted in Sukarno's displacement from power, a massacre of PKI supporters on Java and other islands, and the rise of General Suharto to supreme power.
Suharto's New Order regime placed ABRI firmly in control of Indonesia's political system and, to an extent, its economy as well. Friendly ties were restored with Western countries and Japan, and Indonesia accepted large amounts of Western and Japanese aid and private investment. Under rational economic planning policies, the country experienced orderly development and increases in the standard of living for most of the population. But Suharto's strong anticommunism and insistence on using the Pancasila as the ideological foundation of all groups in society contributed to a tightly controlled, centralized system. The regime's occupations of West New Guinea (which became Indonesia's Irian Jaya Province) and East Timor (which became Timor Timur Province) were a focus of international criticism, stemming from charges of human rights violations. Reelected repeatedly to the presidency, Suharto was regarded by many observers as indispensable to the system's stability and continuity.
| Indonesia | Introduction | Back to Top |
Indonesia, Republic of, island republic and largest nation of South East Asia, constituting most of the Malay Archipelago and including all of the former Netherlands Indies. Indonesia comprises more than 13,670 islands straddling the equator, 6,000 of which are inhabited. From the island of Sumatra in the west to that of New Guinea in the east, Indonesia stretches across some 5,150 km (3,200 mi) of ocean, or almost one eighth of the Earth's circumference; Indonesia's north-south spread is about 1,931 km (1,200 mi).
Population 195,280,000 (1995 official estimate) Population Density 102 people/sq km (264 people/sq mi) (1995 estimate) Urban/Rural Breakdown 42% Urban 58% Rural Largest Cities Jakarta9,160,500 Surabaya2,701,300 Bandung2,368,200 Medan1,909,700 (1996 estimate) Ethnic Groups 40% Javanese 15% Sundanese 45% Other including Madurese,Acehnese,Bataks,Balinese,Dayaks,Ambonese,Timorese, Languages Official Language Bahasa Indonesia Other Languages Javanese, Sundanese, and many other local languages Religions 87% Islam 13% Other including Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism
| Indonesia | Land | Back to Top |
N/A
| Indonesia | Languages | Back to Top |
300 languages and dialects are spoken in Indonesia, but Bahasa Indonesia is the official and most widely spoken tongue. Its common use has helped unify the country since independence in 1949. Bahasa Indonesia is based on Malay, long the market language of coastal towns, and it contains elements of Chinese, Indian, Dutch, and English. In 1972 Indonesia and Malaysia, where the Malay-based Bahasa Malaysia is the official language, agreed on a revised and uniform system for spelling Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. Today, television programs, major newspapers, schools, and universities all use Bahasa Indonesia.
| Indonesia | Legal | Back to Top |
Independence: 17 August 1945 (proclaimed independence; on 27 December 1949, Indonesia became legally independent from the Netherlands) National holiday: Independence Day, 17 August (1945) Constitution: August 1945, abrogated by Federal Constitution of 1949 and Provisional Constitution of 1950, restored 5 July 1959 Legal system: based on Roman-Dutch law, substantially modified by indigenous concepts and by new criminal procedures code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction Suffrage: 17 years of age; universal and married persons regardless of age Executive branch: chief of state: President MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri (since 23 July 2001) and Vice President Hamzah HAZ (since 26 July 2001); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: President MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri (since 23 July 2001) and Vice President Hamzah HAZ (since 26 July 2001); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president and vice president elected separately by the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly or MPR for five-year terms; election for president last held 23 July 2001 (next to be held NA 2006); election for vice president last held 26 July 2001 (next to be held NA 2006) election results: MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri elected president, receiving 591 votes in favor (91 abstentions); Hamzah HAZ elected vice president, receiving 340 votes in favor (237 against) note: the People's Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat or MPR) includes the House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat or DPR) plus 200 indirectly selected members; it meets every five years to elect the president and vice president and to approve the broad outlines of national policy Legislative branch: unicameral House of Representatives or Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) (500 seats; 462 elected by popular vote, 38 are appointed military representatives; members serve five-year terms) elections: last held 7 June 1999 (next to be held NA June 2004) election results: percent of vote by party - PDI-P 37.4%, Golkar 20.9%, PKB 17.4%, PPP 10.7%, PAN 7.3%, PBB 1.8%, other 4.5%; seats by party - PDI-P 154, Golkar 120, PPP 58, PKB 51, PAN 35, PBB 14, other 30 Judicial branch: Supreme Court or Mahkamah Agung (justices appointed by the president from a list of candidates approved by the legislature)
| Indonesia | Life | Back to Top |
Indonesian archipelago is home to many different ways of life, reflecting the region’s history. Before independence, the only factor uniting the islands was Dutch colonialism. Although the kingdoms of Sri Vijaya, Majapahit, and Mataram spread their influence widely throughout the islands, none of the native empires ever controlled the whole region. Nor did Buddhism or Hinduism have a significant impact in the far eastern stretches. As the country has modernized and urbanized, life in the cities has evolved new patterns, adding additional diversity to Indonesian life.
| Indonesia | organization | Back to Top |
APEC, ARF, AsDB, ASEAN, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-15, G-19, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMIBH, UNMOP, UNMOT, UNOMIG, UPU, WCL, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
| Indonesia | People | Back to Top |
There was widespread agreement within the Indonesian government and among foreign advisers that one of the most pressing problems facing the nation in the early 1990s was overpopulation. While Indonesia still had high fertility rates, there were significant reductions in these levels in the 1980s. The overall population annual growth rate was reduced to an estimated 2.0 percent by 1990, down from 2.2 in the 1975-80 period. The crude birth rate declined from 48.8 births per 1,000 in 1968 to 29 per 1,000 in 1990. Although the widely publicized goal of 22 per 1,000 by 1991 was not achieved, the results were impressive for a country the size of Indonesia. The effect of the programs of the National Family Planning Coordinating Agency was particularly dramatic in Java, Bali, and in urban areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan, despite cutbacks in funding. The success of the program in these areas seemed to be directly linked to the improved education of women, their increasing tendency to postpone marriage, and, most important, to a growing awareness and effective use of modern contraceptives.
The reason behind Indonesia's overall decline in fertility rates was a matter of debate in 1992, because it was not clear that economic conditions had improved for most Indonesians during the 1970s and 1980s (the middle class did experience some improvement). Indeed, although the number of poor decreased in the 1970s and 1980s, landlessness, malnutrition, and social and economic inequality may have increased for many of the rural poor. However, some observers argued that, despite the lack of social and economic improvements among Indonesia's poor, easy availability of birth control procedures, mass education, and more mobile family structures may be sufficient to explain this impressive change.
Even though Indonesia's growth rate had decreased over the decades since independence, the population continued to grow and population density increased significantly, particularly on the main islands. In July 1992, Indonesia's population had reached 195,683,531, with an annual growth rate of 1.7 percent, according to United States estimates. The Indonesians themselves claimed 179,322,000 in their 1990 census and various foreign estimates for 1992 ranged between 183 million and 184 million, with a 1.7 percent growth rate. Population growth placed enormous pressures on land, the education system, and other social resources, and was closely linked to the dramatic rise in population mobility and urbanization. At such rates of growth, the population was expected to double by 2025. Even if birth control programs in place in the early 1990s succeeded beyond expectations and each Indonesian woman had only two children, Indonesia's population was still so young that huge numbers of women would reach their child-bearing years in the first decades of the twentyfirst century. This tremendous ballooning of the younger population groups virtually ensured that overpopulation would continue to be a major source of concern well into the next century. By the year 2000, Indonesia's population was projected to reach at least 210 million, with the country maintaining its position as the fourth most populous nation on earth.
Although Indonesia's demographic situation was cause for great concern, it had much in common with other Third World nations. Indeed, in some respects Indonesia was slightly better off than other developing countries in the early 1990s because it had initiated some of the world's most ambitious programs to control its population problem. The key features of these initiatives were the national birth control program and the massive Transmigration Program, in which some 730,000 families were relocated to underpopulated areas of the country.
The population problem was most dramatic among the rice-growing peasants of Java and Bali and in cities--particularly Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Medan. In 1980 the islands of Java, Madura, and Bali, which comprised 6.9 percent of the nation's land area, were home to 63.6 percent of Indonesia's population. These major islands had a population density of more than 500 persons per square kilometer, five times that of the most densely populated Outer Islands.
The inability of these islands to support ever larger populations on ever smaller plots of land was apparent in 1992, particularly to the farmers themselves. Although the intensification of padi agriculture had for decades permitted the absorption of this rising labor force, the rural poor from Java, Bali, and Madura were leaving their native areas to seek more land and opportunity elsewhere. Attempts at significant land reform, which might have improved the peasants' lot, were stalled--if not abandoned--in many areas of Java because of riots and massacres following the alleged communist coup attempt of 1965. Reformers were cautious about raising the issue of land redistribution for fear of being branded communists.
| Indonesia | Politics | Back to Top |
Crescent Moon and Star Party or PBB [Yusril Ihza MAHENDRA, chairman]; Development Unity Party or PPP (federation of former Islamic parties) [Hamzah HAZ, chairman]; Federation of Functional Groups or Golkar [Akbar TANJUNG, general chairman]; Indonesia Democracy Party or PDI (federation of former Nationalist and Christian Parties) [Budi HARDJONO, chairman]; Indonesia Democracy Party-Struggle or PDI-P [MEGAWATI Sukarnoputri, chairperson]; National Awakening Party or PKB [Matori Abdul DJALIL, chairman]; National Mandate Party or PAN [Amien RAIS, chairman]
| Indonesia | Provinces | Back to Top |
27 provinces (propinsi-propinsi, singular - propinsi), 2 special regions* (daerah-daerah istimewa, singular - daerah istimewa), and 1 special capital city district** (daerah khusus ibukota); Aceh*, Bali, Banten, Bengkulu, Gorontalo, Irian Jaya, Jakarta Raya**, Jambi, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur, Kalimantan Barat, Kalimantan Selatan, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Timur, Kepulauan Bangka Belitung, Lampung, Maluku, Maluku Utara, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Riau, Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Tenggara, Sulawesi Utara, Sumatera Barat, Sumatera Selatan, Sumatera Utara, Yogyakarta*; note - the province of Irian Jaya may have been divided into two new provinces - Central Irian Jaya and West Irian Jaya; with the implementation of decentralization on 1 January 2001, the 357 districts (regencies) may become the key administrative units
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