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Serving Students at Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College INDONESIA History

History

The 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia were home to a diversity of cultures and indigenous beliefs when the islands came under the influence of Hindu priests and traders in the first and second centuries A.D.  Muslim invasions began in the13th century, and most of the archipelago had converted to Islam by the15th.  Portuguese traders arrived early in the next century but were ousted by the Dutch around 1595.  The Dutch United East India Company established posts on the island of Java, in an effort to control the spice trade. 

Java,  Sumatra and Bali

By the time of the Renaissance, the islands of Java and Sumatra had already enjoyed a 1,000 years of advanced civilization spanning two major empires.  During the 7th through the 14th centuries, the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya flourished on Sumatra.  At its peak, the Srivijaya Empire reached as far as West Java and the Malay Peninsula.  Also by the 14th century, the Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit had risen in eastern Java.  Gadjah Mada, the empire's chief minister from 1331 to 1364, succeeded in gaining allegiance from most of what is now modern Indonesia and much of the Malay archipelago as well.  Legacies from Gadjah Mada's time include a codification of law and an epic poem.  Islam arrived in Indonesia sometime during the 12th century and, through assimilation, supplanted Hinduism by the end of the 16th century in Java and Sumatra. Bali, however, remains overwhelmingly Hindu.  In the eastern archipelago, both Christian and Islamic missionaries became influential in the 16th and 17th centuries, and, currently, there are large communities of both religions on these islands. 

Dutch Occupation

Beginning in 1602, the Dutch slowly established themselves as rulers of present-day Indonesia, exploiting the weakness of the small kingdoms that had replaced that of Majapahit.  The only exception was East Timor, which remained under Portugal until 1975.  During 300 years of Dutch rule, the Dutch developed the Netherlands East Indies into one of the world's richest colonial possessions. 

During the first decade of the 20th century, an Indonesian independence movement began and expanded rapidly, particularly between the two World Wars.  Its leaders came from a small group of young professionals and students, some of whom had been educated in the Netherlands.  Many, including Indonesia's first president, Sukarno (1945-67), were imprisoned for political activities.

Japanese Occupation

The Japanese occupied Indonesia for three years during World War II.  On August 17, 1945, three days after the Japanese surrender to the Allies a small group of Indonesians, led by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, proclaimed independence and established the Republic of Indonesia.  They set up a provisional government and adopted a constitution to govern the republic until elections could be held and a new constitution written.  Dutch efforts to reestablish complete control met strong resistance.  After four years of warfare and negotiations, the Dutch transferred sovereignty to a federal Indonesian Government.  In 1950, Indonesia became the 60th member of the United Nations. 

Indonesia Independence

Shortly after hostilities with the Dutch ended in 1949, Indonesia adopted a new constitution providing for a parliamentary system of government in which the executive was chosen by and made responsible to parliament.  Parliament was divided among many political parties before and after the country's first nationwide election in 1955, and stable governmental coalitions were difficult to achieve.  The role of Islam in Indonesia became a divisive issue.  Sukarno
defended a secular state based on Pancasila while some Muslim groups preferred either an Islamic state or a constitution which included preambular provision requiring adherents of Islam to be subject to Islamic law.  At the time of independence, the Dutch retained control over the western half of New Guinea, and permitted steps toward self-government and independence. 

Irian Jaya

Negotiations with the Dutch on the incorporation of the territory into Indonesia failed, and armed clashes broke out between Indonesian and Dutch troops in 1961.  In August 1962, the two sides reached an agreement, and Indonesia assumed administrative responsibility for
Irian Jaya on May 1, 1963.  The Indonesian Government conducted an "Act of Free Choice" in Irian Jaya under UN supervision in 1969, in which 1,025 Irianese representatives of local councils agreed by consensus to remain a part of Indonesia.  A subsequent UN General Assembly resolution confirmed the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia.  Opposition to Indonesian administration of Irian Jaya, also known as Papua or West Papua, gave rise to small scale guerrilla activity in the years following Jakarta's assumption of control.  In the more open atmosphere since 1998, there have been more explicit expressions within Irian Jaya of a desire for independence from Indonesia. 

East Timor

From 1524 to 1975, East Timor was a Portuguese colony on the island of Timor, separated from Australia's north coast by the Timor Sea.  As a result of political events in Portugal, Portuguese authorities abruptly withdrew from Timor in 1975, exacerbating power struggles
among several Timorese political factions.  An avowedly Marxist faction called "Fretilin" achieved military superiority.  Fretilin's ascent in an area contiguous to Indonesian territory alarmed the Indonesian Government, which regarded it as a threatening movement.  Following
appeals from some of Fretilin's Timorese opponents, Indonesian military forces intervened in East Timor and overcame Fretilin's regular forces in 1975-76.  Small scale guerrilla activity persisted after Indonesia declared East Timor its 27th province in 1976, following a petition by a provisional government for incorporation into Indonesia.  The UN never recognized Indonesia's incorporation of East Timor and  later brokered negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal on the territory's status.

In January 1999, the Indonesian Government agreed to a process, with UN involvement, under which the people of East Timor would be allowed to choose between autonomy and independence through a direct ballot.  The direct ballot was held on August 30, 1999.  Some 98% of registered voters cast their ballots, and 78.5% of the voters chose independence over continued integration with Indonesia; the Indonesian army and local militias, whom they armed and supported, reacted with an orgy of violence, looting and killing.  This displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed the already fragile economic base.  In October 1999, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) revoked the 1978 decree that annexed East Timor, and the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) assumed responsibility for administering East Timor until it becomes independent. 

President Sukarno

Unsuccessful rebellions on Sumatra, Sulawesi, West Java, and other islands beginning in 1958, plus a failure by the constituent assembly to develop a new constitution, weakened the parliamentary system.  Consequently, in 1959, when President Sukarno unilaterally revived
the provisional 1945 constitution, which gave broad presidential powers, he met little resistance.  From 1959 to 1965, President Sukarno imposed an authoritarian regime under the label of Guided Democracy.  He also moved Indonesia's foreign policy toward nonalignment, a foreign policy stance supported by other prominent leaders of former colonies who rejected formal alliances with either the Western or Soviet blocs.  Under Sukarno's auspices, these leaders gathered in Bandung, West Java, 1955, to lay the groundwork for what became known as the Non-Aligned Movement.  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, President Sukarno moved closer to Asian communist states and toward the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in domestic affairs.  Though the PKI represented the largest communist party outside the Soviet Union and China, its mass support base never demonstrated an ideological adherence typical of communist parties in other countries. 

By 1965, the PKI controlled many of the mass civic and cultural organizations that Sukarno had established to mobilize support for his regime and, with Sukarno's acquiescence, embarked on a campaign to establish a "Fifth Column" by arming its supporters.  Army leaders resisted this campaign.  Under circumstances that have never been fully explained, on October 1, 1965, PKI sympathizers within the military, including elements from Sukarno's palace guard, occupied key locations in Jakarta and kidnapped and murdered six senior generals.  Major General Soeharto, the commander of the Army Strategic Reserve, rallied army troops opposed to the PKI to reestablish control over the city.  Violence swept throughout Indonesia in the aftermath of the October 1 events, and unsettled conditions persisted through 1966.  Rightist gangs killed tens of thousands of alleged communists in rural areas.  Estimates of the number of deaths range between 160,000 and 500,000.  The violence was especially brutal in Java and Bali.  During this period, PKI members by the tens of thousands turned in their membership cards.  The emotions and fears of instability created by this crisis persisted for many years; the communist party remains banned from Indonesia. 

President Soeharto

Throughout the 1965-66 period, President Sukarno vainly attempted to restore his political position and shift the country back to its pre-October 1965 position.  Although he remained president, in March 1966, Sukarno had to transfer key political and military powers to General Soeharto, who by that time had become head of the armed forces.  In March 1967, the Provisional People's ConsultativeAssembly (MPRS) named General Soeharto acting president.
Sukarno ceased to be a political force and lived under virtual house arrest until his death in 1970. 

President Soeharto proclaimed a "New Order" in Indonesian politics and dramatically shifted foreign and domestic policies away from the course set in Sukarno's final years.  The New Order established economic rehabilitation and development as its primary goals and pursued its policies through an administrative structure dominated by the military but with advice from Western-educated economic experts.

President Habibie

In 1968, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) formally selected Soeharto to a full 5-year term as president, and he was re-elected to successive 5-year terms in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, and 1998.  In mid-1997, Indonesia was afflicted by the Asian financial and economic crisis, accompanied by the worst drought in 50 years and falling prices for oil, gas, and other commodity exports.  The rupiah plummeted, inflation soared, and capital flight accelerated.  Demonstrators, initially led by students, called for Soeharto's resignation.  Amidst widespread civil unrest, Soeharto resigned on May 21, 1998, three months after the MPR had selected him for a seventh term.  Soeharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, became Indonesia's third president.  President Habibie quickly assembled a cabinet.  One of its main tasks was to reestablish International Monetary Fund and donor community support for an economic stabilization program.  He moved quickly to release political prisoners and lift controls on freedom of speech and association.  Elections for the national, provincial, and sub-provincial parliaments were held on June 7, 1999. 

President Wahid

In October 1999, the People's Consultative Assembly, which consists of the 500-member Parliament plus 200 appointed members, elected Abdurrahman Wahid as President, and Megawati Soekarnoputri as Vice President, for 5-year terms.  Although East Timor is now well set on the path to independence, with a United Nations Transitional Administration now in charge, much has to be done to fix the immense damage inflicted on the territory.  Elsewhere, Aceh in northern Sumatra and the Melanesians of Irian Jaya (who seek union with Papua New Guinea) both rebelled in the 1990s in opposition to the  Government's economic development and population policies.  The Aceh rebels, who are staunchly Muslim, have also come to the negotiating table recently, and may accept limited autonomy.  The main obstacle to settlements has been the army, which fears the break-up of the national territory if excessive concessions were made to secessionist movement.

An increasingly assertive Parliament has 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.  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. 

Since achieving independence after World War II Indonesia went from a subsistence economy to one of the "young dragons", of the Pacific Rim.  Its abundant natural resources and pro-development government made Indonesia a focus of foreign investment.  Fertile plantations yielded great profit in spices, coffee, and sugar.  Indonesia possesses great mineral wealth: tin, coal, bauxite, and oil.

Sources:
Library of Congress Country Studies