Indonesia: Glory and Sorrow - history and social aspects

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), May, 2001 by Llewellyn D. Howell

INDONESIA has already had its 15 minutes of 21st-century fame. That has come in the form of notoriety, rather than recognition of its rich diversity; in stories of beheadings and cannibalism, instead of technological advancement; and in expressions of racism and human savagery, in place of conciliation and faith. The world's fourth-largest country encompasses all of these facets, making it a gem that is half diamond, half coal.

In March, 2001, Dayaks, one of the groups of native people on the island of Kalimantan (Borneo), again erupted in violence directed at immigrants from the nearby island of Madura. The Madurese had been pushed to the less-populated island in a government effort to disperse its population from crowded Java and Madura. This "transmigration" policy has barely dented the demographic or economic problems of central Indonesia and has created, instead, hemorrhaging sores in the intricate quilt that comprises Indonesian society. In this latest eruption, Dayaks returned to a bloody history by cutting off the heads of Madurese and reportedly eating the hearts of some. In one incident, 118 Madurese were killed in a schoolyard after being pulled from tracks in which they had hoped to have a protected escape. More than 450 are known dead in this slaughter.

Indonesia's history is a rich one, replete with episodes of empire, artistic and architectural magnificence, cultural expansionism, fragmentation, war, Asian and European colonialism, revolution, and, ultimately in 1949, unification and independence. Prior to that date, Indonesia as a single political entity never existed. When the Europeans arrived in the 16th century, they found an archipelago consisting of more than 13,600 islands, 300 distinct ethnic groups, and 225 dialects. Rule was generated through numerous sultanates, monarchies, and chief-ruled tribal territories. The Dutch brought together these many diverse units and created the country now known as Indonesia.

Adding to the political fragmentation of the region were the multidimensional sources of religious thought and the origins of philosophies of governance. In a quasi-colonial manner, Indians had ruled or influenced many of the major political entities of the Indonesian archipelago prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Indians had brought with them Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, which became layered in a mix that underlies the nature of modern Sunni Islam in Indonesia. In all of these religious manifestations, political power was vested in single male leaders whose right to role was granted by the deities or heaven. Rule was singular, patriarchal, and hierarchical.

Prior to the arrival of European colonialists, significant and powerful empires existed in the region that form the historical basis of nationalism today. Sri Vijaya, based at Palembang in southern Sumatra, reached through Java to the east and to the area of Bangkok (before it existed) in Thailand to the north. It was a Buddhist empire born in 670 A.D. and lasting until 1365. During this period, Buddhist culture and thought spread throughout the archipelagic region, influencing social order, commerce, and art. Madjapahit was a Hindu empire with a capital in eastern Java that originated about 1100 and continued until 1500. Malacca was the first major Islamic state in the region--located in what is Malaysia today--originating in 1400 and remaining powerful until defeated by a major Portuguese naval force in 1511. Each of these historically and culturally powerful states was ruled under provisions that were religious. All political power was derived from above, not below. The concepts of democratic institutions and governance were vague and foreign until well into the independence period.

The Indonesian entity's first relief from Dutch role came in 1942, when the Japanese interrupted, and really concluded, European control of this configuration of states. A sense of Indonesian nationalism was born, and it was fostered between 1942 and 1945, leading to the independence movement that, in turn, led to revolution against the returning Dutch. After the successful conclusion of that revolt in 1949, Indonesia was ruled in the same manner that its components had been for several millennia. It should have come as no surprise that the revolutionary leader Sukamo built a patriarchal empire as Indonesia's first president (1949-68). Nor, despite his successor, Suharto (1968-98), leaning toward the West, should it be difficult to understand why the political system remained uniquely hierarchical and personalized.

Throughout these millennia of continuity, Indonesia has remained authoritarian in institutional construction because its belief systems, culture, and experience make it so. Law and legal concepts had their origins in heaven, and neither the Dutch nor the Japanese did anything to alter these underpinnings. It was the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and Indonesian economic collapse that changed the course of Indonesian history. It brought down the last of the great Indonesian patriarchs, elevated to power B.J. Habibie as a temporary president, and laid the groundwork for the first democratic election in October, 1999. Since then, Pres. Abdurrahman Wahid has struggled to overcome history, social tradition, and inertia to establish political and legal institutions and practices that conform to the demands of an outward-looking, transparent, and market-oriented social system.