http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Indonesia

Bhinneka Tunggal Ika

"Unity in Diversity" Note It's surprisingly very similar to USA's motto 'E Pluribus Unum'/'From Many, One' — National Motto "Unity in Diversity"

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Indonesia, officially known as the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a collection of 17,508 islands located in Southeast Asia. With a population of about 230 million, it is the fourth most populous country in the world, beaten only by the United States, India and China.

Indonesia is one of those places almost completely unknown to Westerners (at least until the Twitter era) despite its many tourist spots and huge population, as well as a major role in world history. Australians are an exception to this, as both countries are (rather uneasy) neighbors, and likewise the Netherlands' colonial legacy has left enough Indonesians and Indonesian-born Eurasians (like the Van Halen brothers' mom) in the larger Dutch cities to make a mark. Ever heard of Bali? It's one of Indonesia's many islands, and probably the only fairly popular one. You've also heard of the Komodo dragons and orangutans, of course, both of which live in Indonesia. History buffs know about the Spice Islands, the source of cloves and other spices for which 16th-century explorers set sail — today they are known as the Maluku Islands. Krakatoa, the great volcano that erupted in 1883 and (theoretically) caused a near-extinction event long before that? In Indonesia. Java, source of the English slang for coffee (and a programming language)? An island in Indonesia. The obscurity in most of the West is partly because, until after World War II, the area was known as the East Indies (to be precise, Indonesia was the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia the British East Indies, the Philippines the Spanish East Indies, etc.). So "Indonesia" basically seemed to appear out of nowhere.note Of course, it actually didn't. In 1850, English ethnologist George Windsor Earl proposed, in his scientific paper "On The Leading Characteristics of the Papuan, Australian and Malay-Polynesian Nations", the terms Indunesians and Malayunesians to name the "inhabitants of the 'Indian [as in, East Indies] Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago'" while co-author and Earl's student James Richardson Logan used Indonesia as a synonym for "Indian Archipelago". The names became popular for the region after 1900, especially in academic circles, however not to the Dutch, who used their own names. Of course, Indonesian nationalists found a way to bash the Dutch and adopted this name for their nation as a way of affirming themselves politically.

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Indonesia's territorial expanse is unimaginably vast: from Aceh in the northwest to the extreme southeast of Indonesian New Guinea is a distance of over 5,000 km, comparable to the geographic stretch of the entire European continent. The archipelago is mainly volcanic in nature and has lots of natural barriers. This, combined with the waters separating the islands, results in an extremely diverse population. Indonesia has the world's second biggest number of languages at about 700, with a slightly less number of ethnic groups. Indeed, one can say that it's too diverse; although the Javanese form a plurality, an enduring issue inside the country is whether the state can legitimately unite what's basically the society of a small continent. If not for the fact that country was subjugated by a single colonizer, it would have surely been broken up into dozens of smaller countries by now.

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Indonesia's major religion is Islam — it is in fact the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. However, it is not the sole religion: Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are significant minorities in the country. Interestingly enough, Indonesian Islam (outside Aceh Province) is almost a religion unto itself — while Indonesian Muslims make the Hajj and pray facing Mecca, they also combine their faith with indigenous traditions. The Ramayana is performed by Muslim wayang puppeteers, women and men pray in the same room (though not the same row), and a vast number of Indonesians believe in ghosts and spirits from their ethnic folklore.

History

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Early history

The ancient history of Indonesia, before the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms started to crop up in the 4th century CE, is Shrouded in Myth. Most of the current inhabitants of the country speak languages that are part of the Austronesian language family, whose homeland is speculated to be Taiwan, where the languages exhibit diversity the most, but how they spread their language to the archipelago (and for that matter, everywhere but Taiwan) is a matter of contention. It's unlikely that all 386 million+ Austronesian speakers are descended from the same common ancestors who lived in Taiwan four millennia ago, the earliest time evidence of emigration is attested (and the Taiwanese aborigines aren't exactly known for a large population, Taiwan being a mountainous island the size of the US state of Maryland). The current consensus is that the Austronesians who emigrated and settled in non-Taiwan lands were few, but they had a tremendous impact by acculturating the locals.



Regardless of the squabbles above, the Austronesians were known universally as a great maritime people, having the largest expanse of language spread before European colonialism: they settled as far east as Easter Island and as far west as Madagascar. Regarding Madagascar, the Malagasy people (particularly the Merina and Sihanaka tribes of the central highlands) are descended from Bornean immigrants of the early 1st millennium CE. The traditional Merina standard is red and white, the same as Majapahit's (both colors are retained in the modern countries' flags, in case you're wondering).



Hinduism and Buddhism reached the archipelago in the 4th century and soon after kingdoms were built. Kutai of eastern Borneo and Tarumanagara of western Java, both espousing Hinduism, were among the first ones. The 7th century saw the rise of Srivijaya, a Buddhist Malay empire who managed to wrest control of all of Sumatra, Java, and the Asian mainland up to the Kra Isthmus in present-day Thailand, becoming the first Indonesian polity to rule more than one major island. The empire was a center of Buddhist learning and many monks from China and India exchanged students to study in the capital, Palembang. The next century saw the Hindu Javanese Mataram rising to challenge the Srivijaya's hegemony. The Mataram period was when the Hindu-Buddhist temples of Java, including the Buddhist Borobudur and Hindu Prambanan, were built. The temples suggest that an acculturation of the two foreign religions was adhered. Mataram and its successors, Kahuripan and Kediri, continued to wage wars against Srivijaya, but they remained stuck in Java until the last Kediri king, Kertajaya was forced to abdicate to Ken Arok in 1222, beginning the golden age of the archipelago.

Singhasari and Majapahit

Singhasari was founded by Ken Arok, a regional lord from Kediri, whose last king he deposed. He first came to power by killing another lord called Tunggul Ametung of Tumapel. According to the semi-mythical book Pararaton, he did this to snatch Tunggul's beautiful wife, Ken Dedes, who was rumored to give birth to great kings (and in some stories and the aforementioned Pararaton, Ken Arok was actually Tunggul Ametung's very own attendant so he had to work his way around without getting punished for treachery), and used a magical kris blade which however was bewitched by its maker, causing it to inflict a Cycle of Revenge on Ken Arok's and Tunggul Ametung's bloodlines. The curse supposedly ended in the third generation, when Ken Arok's granddaughter, Mahisa Campaka, and Tunggul Ametung's grandson, Ranggawuni, formed an alliance to overthrow the former's half-uncle, Tohjaya (who deposed Tunggul Ametung's son, Anusapati, who killed Ken Arok), making sure that they did not use the aforementioned magical kris blade (which was used by Anusapati to kill Ken Arok, and in turn Tohjaya would use it on Anusapati) against Tohjaya and rule Singhasari together, ensuring that the curse would continue no more.



Ranggawuni's successor Kertanagara, continued to expand Singhasari's borders, and even humiliated the Mongols under Kublai Khan by refusing their demands of submission. The Mongols prepared for an assault, but around that time, a coup d'etat instigated by the duke of Kediri, Jayakatwang, cost Kertanegara's life. His son-in-law, Raden Wijaya, survived and used the Mongol's coming to take down Jayakatwang, and once Jayakatwang was down, Raden Wijaya drove the Mongols away from Singhasari. Once he took the throne in 1294, he changed the name Singhasari to Majapahit.



Raden Wijaya's successor Jayanegara turned out to be unpopular due to various reasonsnote The elites distrusted him due to his mother's foreign (Sumatran) origin; the populace's support of him was weak due to lack of security, culminating in multiple rebellions. However, his reign marked the debut of military leader Gajah Mada, who'd soon go on to become the biggest badass of the empire, while still being loyal to Jayanegara despite his flaws. With Gajah Mada's help, Jayanegara was able to reclaim his throne after being driven out by rebels. He then delegated most of the ruling jobs to Gajah Mada, but that enabled him to indulge in his darker lusts, namely being a gigantic casanova, especially towards wives of his subordinates and sometimes even sisters. Jayanegara went from being merely unpopular into absolutely insane. This eventually culminated in him banging the wife of his surgeon just before he was about to undergo an operation. The surgeon didn't take this well, and made the operation go awry as his revenge. Gajah Mada was nearby, and as ever the loyal general he is, slew the surgeon, but failed to save his king. That's one side of the story, another story is that Gajah Mada set up the surgeon to kill Jayanegara because his wife was also being banged by Jayanegara (and of course, Jayanegara's incompetence and insanity was another factor why Gajah Mada had to put him down for his kingdom.)



After the fall of Jayanegara and the rise of his successor, Queen Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi, Gajah Mada was appointed as Prime Minister, and then recited the now famous Sumpah Palapa: He's not gonna taste any spices or any earthly pleasures until he unified the archipelago. And he actually delivered. Under Gajah Mada, the Majapahit Empire started conquering the archipelago one by onenote some experts maintain that this 'conquest' was more a show of force than an out-and-out subjugation; the end result was believed to be a conglomeration of states more akin to the modern USA or European Union, and if there's any rebellion from within the Empire, you can be assured that Gajah Mada was first in line to quell the rebellion. With Tribhuwana's successor, Hayam Wuruk, considered a wise and popular king, in tandem with Gajah Mada, Majapahit entered its golden age.



Majapahit's downfall was set in motion when there was only one kingdom left in the archipelago to be conquered so Gajah Mada could finally complete his Sumpah Palapa, the island-kingdom of Sunda. Hayam Wuruk made plans to make the Sundanese Princess Dyah Pitaloka Citaresmi his consort, but Gajah Mada had other ideas to approach the situation. He decreed that Sunda should submit as vassal, whereas Pitaloka would become concubine instead. The Kingdom of Sunda did not take this insult well, they ended up fighting in a grueling Last Stand/Curb-Stomp Battle that ended with Pitaloka being Driven to Suicide by their defeat. Even Hayam Wuruk was not pleased with the result, so Gajah Mada took the blame, was exiled, and died in obscurity. note The sudden eagerness of Gajah Mada was also a source of debate. Some say that it just happens like that (or the fact that he was this close to complete his Sumpah Palapa that he cited to Tribhuwana, so he got a little too gung-ho to fulfill the oath, in some sources he did tell Hayam Wuruk about the oath, but Hayam Wuruk had a sudden moment of indecisiveness out of his love to Pitaloka, so Gajah Mada took (a fatal) initiative), or there was a miscommunication between Gajah Mada and the Sunda kingdom, eventually escalating into that battle. There's a reason that this Bubat Incident is often considered a tragedy on both sides, not just for Sunda. note This whole thing eventually became the source of tension between Sundanese with Javanese that lasted for generations, with the people of Sunda refusing to name anything within them as something from Majapahit, viewed Gajah Mada as a dastardly villain when everyone else in the Nusantara considered him a hero and forbade any marriages between Sundanese and Javanese out of 'superstition'. By the tail end of the 2010's, however, the descendants of Sunda and Majapahit Kingdoms thankfully agreed to bury the hatchet and made peace with each other.



Despite the loss of Gajah Mada (his massive tasks ended up being delegated to several ministers), Hayam Wuruk was still an influential and most respected king. While Majapahit stopped with expanding, Hayam Wuruk improved the Empire's infrastructure so well that he was extremely well loved by the people and made Majapahit still a strong Empire. It's only after Hayam Wuruk passed away that everything truly crashed down, since Hayam Wuruk decided to pass down his throne to his two children, and then they started fighting each other to become the sole ruler of the Empire, which continued for several generations. Naturally, this weakened Majapahit's grip on the archipelago.

Rise of Islam and the Coming of Europeans

With Majapahit weakened, the archipelago began to shift from warring states into a more trade and tolerance-based approach, and at this point, Islam began to rise. The religion actually had presence for quite a while - Muslim tombstones and burial practices were known in the 11th century - but the first extensive, and indigenous, presence appeared in the 13th century with the rise of Pasai in Aceh. At that time, Pasai was the world's easternmost Muslim civilization and was reported by Moroccan traveler Ibn Batutta. In the centuries after, Muslim communities were established along the islands' coast and created kingdoms from the vestiges of the former Hindu-Buddhist ones, including Aceh and Malacca in Sumatra; Banten, Demak, and Mataram in Java; Pontianak and Banjar in Borneo; Ternate and Tidore in Maluku; and Gowa and Bone in Sulawesi. Islam took root slowly because it was spread mainly through trade, instead of organized proselytization; while Sumatra was quite easily converted by the 15th century, Java's Islamization was complete only in the 18th century, when the last Hindu kingdom of Blambangan fell to Dutch intervention. Most of eastern Indonesia accepted Islam only in some places, while New Guinea was outright untouched (although there are documented contacts with Ternate). Most of the remnants of the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms retreated to Bali along with the artifacts and culture they could recover and it continued to be the majorly Hindu/Buddhist population in Indonesia even to present day, when Islam was pretty much everywhere else.



Wars still occurred here and there, but they were less massive than those happening during the Hindu-Buddhist era. Of course, at this point, Indonesia's natural production of spices, and specifically nutmeg, made itself known to the Europeans, who dubbed it the 'Spice Islands'. Nations like Portugal, England and eventually the Netherlands, came to pay visits at first, but they eventually decided that Indonesia was too much of a valuable region with their spices and and wanted to colonize the archipelago.



Portugal was first, followed by the Dutch. But after almost two hundred years, the Dutch government dissolved the hopelessly corrupt Mega-Corp Dutch East India Company (VOC, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) and took over its assets. The Dutch colonial period was a time of much hardship to the Indonesian people and universally regarded by historians as a shining example of the evils of colonialism. Unlike the British, whose interests laid in bringing their colonies up to their standards, or the Portuguese and Spanish, who wanted to spread the holy word, the Dutch were interested in trade and trade only. The Dutch had no particular attachment to the Indonesian natives and looked down on them. They had no interest to educate them, seeing it as something that would be worthless to teach to these "subhumans". Unlike the Brits, whose schools eventually accepted the local commoners, the Dutch violently put down local rebellions and closed education to natives until the early 20th century, over three centuries after they first set shop. Considering these facts, it's actually a miracle that Indonesia managed to become independent relatively stable and sane. Bear in mind: while post-colonial states like Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines inherited their ex-masters' infrastructural and cultural trappings, Indonesia basically inherited nothing from the Netherlands. Not even the Dutch language, which is why virtually nobody in Indonesia speaks Dutch (Although some Dutch words were still used even in modern Indonesia, such as 'Verboden' for 'No Entry' signs, because it's local equivalent ("Dilarang Masuk") is regarded too long for a sign).



The Dutch rule was briefly interrupted in the early 19th century after the The Napoleonic Wars, when France swooped in, sending Herman Willem Daendels to administer the colony. He built the first trans-Java road, a postal road that spans from Anyer in the west to Panarukan in the east, forming the basis of the modern Pantura road. Daendels' reign only lasted about three years, and after that, the British swept in. They sent in a British man called Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who came to administrate Java, and surprisingly the British were a bit more lax in colonization. Because of this, Raffles was more looked upon by the natives and eventually in his honor, he would become the namesake of a huge corpse flower growing in Indonesia, Rafflesia arnoldi (the arnoldi part came from the naturalist who actually founded the flower, Joseph Arnold). He also wrote a book named The History of Java, some of which looted from Mataram's courtly chronicles, and started cataloguing historical places of interest, such as Borobudur.



Unfortunately, Britain left the archipelago after a few years and the Netherlands were once again dominant in colonization, restarting the period of cruelty. The various sultanates did not take this kindly and they initiated a lot of rebellions for the freedom of the people. Even some noblewomen at that time had to give the middle finger to the Stay in the Kitchen culture and became Action Girl to oppose the Dutch. However, the Dutch loved their Divide and Conquer strategy and were always able to crush these rebellions with themnote they love it so much, divide et impera is always taught in Indonesian schools as the bane of early resistance to the colonisation. Later on, these kind of rebel leaders would be appointed as modern Indonesia's national heroes.



It was mostly believed that the Dutch held grip of Indonesia for 342 years. However, newer history discoveries stated that this was not the case. The Dutch actually spent about 317 years to fight off the defending Indonesian kingdoms, since the archipelago was big enough that they couldn't finish the process when the most effective tool they had was their Divide and Conquer strategy. After those years, the pacification and colonization the whole archipelago was finally completed and the Dutch only managed to govern Indonesia for good for about 25 years.



After the Dutch relaxed their educational policy, several native intellectuals popped up and decided that their homeland deserved better than this. They wrote books to teach the younger generation what their nation got from the Dutch and sometimes even including veiled Take Thats against colonial rule. The Dutch weren't pleased, but they couldn't curb this trend completely, so sometimes they just let it go. Bottom line, even as the age of war passed by, the struggle to reach freedom continued. Perhaps one of the most influential of these intellectual figures around this age would be Raden Adjeng Kartini, who was fed up with how Indonesian women had to Stay in the Kitchen and founded a school for Indonesian girls and promoted women's emancipation rights in Indonesia. She would later become the best known female in Indonesian history, and the most influential one too; every women's rights could be reserved thanks to this lady.

World War II, Independence, and Guided Democracy

Cue World War II. The Netherlands, being an Allied nation, got Indonesia involved in the war, only to be driven away by Japan, ostensibly as an "Eastern Brother" coming to liberate the nation. Unfortunately, the takeover from Japan could be considered to be just as harsh, or even worse than life under the Dutch, so either way, Indonesia was still suffering big timenote Modern Japanese tends to view this as some sort of Necessary Evil, admitting that they apologize for their ancestors' utter cruelty, but from the point of view of the Japanese back then, the Dutch colonization left Indonesian manpower extremely crippled and weak that they had to whip them up to shape ASAP in order to prepare for any cases of unwanted war emergencies.. However, charismatic figures like Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta studied Japanese knowledge, then took advantage of Germany and Japan's weakening due to the US dropping nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, declaring Indonesia independent on August 17, 1945. The Dutch tried to reestablish their colony shortly after, following the Battle of Surabaya where Indonesia's fledgling army attacked British forces for misunderstandings about disarmament of Japanese troops, but the United Nations told them to just cut it out and leave Indonesia alone. Cynically speaking, the decolonisation of Southeast Asia was in fact a containment measure against the Communists, and the leading independence movement was staunchly anti-communist already.



Building the nation was very hard for Indonesia. As noted above, Indonesia inherited very little from Dutch colonization, so everything had to be built from scratch. Events happening within Sukarno's rule included hostilities with Malaysia, which he wanted to annex into Indonesia, citing the basis of Gajah Mada and his Sumpah Palapa. He even went as far as leaving the United Nations when it accepted Malaysia's membership. However, Sukarno's public approval began to wane as he became increasingly autocratic, declaring himself President for Life and leading Indonesia under the so-called "Demokrasi Terpimpin" (Guided Democracy). He became close with the Second World (i.e. the Soviet Union and its allies) and enjoyed an alliance with the support of the leftists, chief of them the PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia; Communist Party of Indonesia).



Eventually, the 30 September Movement happened. On September 30, 1965, a rogue military movement supposedly aligned with the PKI kidnapped several pro-Sukarno generals (and an adjutant who sacrificed himself to protect his superior's escape); six were horribly mutilated and their corpses thrown into a well in Lubang Buaya on the outskirts of Jakarta. One general, Abdul Harris Nasution (the aforementioned adjutant's superior), escaped and reported this to his superiors. Nasution's 5-year-old daughter was also shot in the incident and died in the hospital several days later.note Sources are conflicted whether that's because she was shielding her father or the shooter was aiming for Nasution but accidentally shot her who happened to be nearby.



Led by Suharto, the Army pinned the blame on the politically powerful PKI: members, suspected sympathizers, and in some cases their families, were rounded up, jailed, tortured and killed by the hundreds of thousands. Eventually, with its leaders dead and its members driven underground, the once-millions strong PKI was banned, and the incident was hushed up as a Communist takeover attempt.

New Order and its downfall (Trisakti Incident)

In the aftermath of the PKI coup, Sukarno lost even more support and the nation was on the verge of collapsing. A new president had to be elected and thanks to his achievements for quelling the coup, Suharto was elected. It also helped his case that Suharto was also very close to and trusted by Sukarno himself, thus the story went on similarly with how Suharto looked like a worthy successor of Sukarno just in case he went astray.



To stabilize Indonesia, Suharto announced his brand of regime called "Orde Baru" (New Order). Indonesia's face would change that day. While Sukarno was very hostile against United Nations and Malaysia, Suharto instead opted for peaceful relationship and mended their relationship, thus curbing down their rivalry and allowed Indonesia to be part of the United Nations. His economic project was leering to liberalism and capitalism, with the United States of America as one of Suharto's chosen allies. Thanks to this, Indonesia's economy grew exponentially, enough that that the world was impressed with the formerly colonized nation to grow in such great pace and gave it the moniker 'Tiger of Asia'.



All seemed well for Indonesia, and it would look like a good time to say 'And they lived Happily Ever After'. Unfortunately, after 32 years of rule by Suharto, everything started to fall into pieces and Indonesia would experience yet another great change in the face of harsh truths that came out.



As it turned out, Suharto was actually leading an iron-fisted, corrupt government, which lasted 32 years. What's that 'democracy' thing he promoted all those 32 years? Great propaganda to ensure that his dictatorship remained hidden, you know something was off that in every general election for presidency, it's always Suharto's party (Golkar) that won. But no one dared to point that out because any opposition would be stealthily silenced, usually covered with excuses like "Being tasked/deported/secured to somewhere". The economic growth also turned out to be mired with corruption and depended on international debts, although Indonesia really enjoyed economic growth and stabilized from the chaos caused by Sukarno, Suharto was using a weak foundation to accommodate that, along with corruption, collusion and Nepotism (his son was pretty notorious for this), and only a select few got to enjoy the growth and improvements, mostly concentrated on the capital Jakarta, while other regions were instead underdeveloped (and even then there were also a large group of poor people not "taken care of" in Jakarta). When the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit, Indonesia suffered big time, and when people learned about it, they were nonetheless not very pleased.



Additionally, though it is still a topic of considerable contention in Indonesia (because discussing it is a criminal offense), it has come to knowledge that the 30 September Movement was a sort of False Flag Operation actually conducted... by the very military it was supposed to have targeted. In a failed coup, blame was shifted to the communists, leading to the massacre (generally estimated from 500,000 to 1 million dead). Special point was taken to remind the population afterwards that only the communists (and absolutely none from the army) are to blame through the education system. In actuality, the plotters were mostly army officers (and did include some communist officers). And since all the communists were dead anyway, it worked relatively well. Another discovery about Suharto's actions in the 30 September Movement leading to his rise to power was that somehow, the CIA and the USA admitted of being involved, their reasoning boiled down with how they suspected that Sukarno would become a rising power, and yet he was leaning towards communism and thus they decided to intervene by manipulating the situation, including currying the favors of Suharto and eventually making the 30 September Movement the False Flag Operation as described above so Indonesia wouldn't fall into communism ideology like Russia or China (and becoming an ideological enemy for them in the cold war). For good or bad, this is not the place to talk about it, so let's continue.



Following the fallout of the financial crisis, college students demanded Suharto to step down, which resulted in another tragedy when, on May 12, 1998, snipers killed four Trisakti University students, which proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back, while beforehand people were able to hold back their anger at Suharto's lies, this was the moment when the people, without care of what would happen to them in case they spoke back against Suharto, finally stood up and yelled "IMPEACH/DOWN WITH SUHARTO!" en masse, following a mourning parent's low mumbling such words in the face of their son's death by those snipers. Mass demonstrations flared up into riots, targeting police offices and cars before turning to Chinese Indonesians (which general consensus claims to stem from jealousy over how they managed to survive the crisis relatively unscathed, in contrast to most other ethnic groups), devolving into an orgy of murder, rape and pillage that forced many Chinese Indonesians to flee. To quell the chaos, Suharto had no choice but to immediately step down, replaced by his vice-president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie (Temporarily due to the severe emergency caused by the situation, until a new election with new President-Vice President pair that came out victorious, this is why Habibie was the only President to ever hold the office without any vice presidents).



In the aftermath, Suharto's horrid methods in building up Indonesia, such as the invasion of East Timor, the PKI massacre, and discrimination against Chinese Indonesians became exposed, and he ended up being demonized by his own country and even the world, being put on the same level as other corrupt rulers like Ferdinand Marcos from nearby Philippines. Investigations revealed that he had amassed illicit wealth that dwarfed any other corrupt leaders at the time. Although, per the Indonesian culture even after his fall, when he died, they still had enough decency to mourn for his death instead of ridiculing him. After all, corruption or not, he still managed to make Indonesia stand strong for about 32 years.





Reformation Era

Suharto's fall marked the beginning of Indonesia's reformation, which has a heavy emphasis on democracy and free speech. It still struggles to maintain itself, because people's opinions still strongly affect leaders. The presidency is no longer an office which is held for very long, with most occupants lasting for a single five-year term. On the 1999 elections, Habibie stepped down in favor of Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, with Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri as the vice president. Gus Dur was impeached after ruling for two years due to a conflict with interest with the legislative assembly, being succeeded by Megawati for the remainder of his term. The winner of the next election in 2004 was Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, better known with just his acronym SBY, along with Jusuf Kalla, and surprisingly, SBY won the next one, except at that time, he switched Kalla with Boediono. Due to the new law that a president (and vice-president) cannot have more than two terms, SBY had to stand down for the 2014 elections, but Kalla is still eligible for vice-presidency, and so he, along with the then-governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), went on to win the election, with Kalla still being the vice-president. Much like SBY, Jokowi won the next elections in 2019, this time switching Kalla with Ma'ruf Amin for his vice-president.



Despite its turbulent government issues, the Reformation proved to be quite beneficial to Indonesia as applications like Twitter or other social medias became extremely popular and giving Indonesia a lot of international coverage, for good and bad. In addition of this, at 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America and his origins from Indonesia became quickly known, garnering more interest to the nation. As such, Indonesia went to become one of the more well-known Southeast Asia nations in the world (at least, that's in popular culture. Indonesia has always been a powerful regional player economically, being one of the 20 largest economies in the world, with Jakarta being also the seat of ASEAN.)



The openness of the Reformation era also led to the rise of religious fundamentalism, and specifically Islamism. Having been forced underground for much of the Guided Democracy and New Order eras, Islamism came to the fore as a grassroots movement. Even though its publicity steadily rose after Suharto's downfall — and despite multiple deadly bombings against Western and Christian targets on Java and Bali — it only really came into the public attention in 2016 after a political "scandal". The then-governor of Jakarta, "Ahok" Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, had made a controversial statement regarding The Qur'an that was taken out of context. Somehow, this came into the hands of a certain someone who uploaded it to the media, triggering a nasty fallout in which Islamists publicly condemned Ahok, rallying the public's cause by noting his ethnicity (Ahok was the first governor of Jakarta to be an ethnic Chinese) and bad personality (which was unfortunately correct; Ahok had a rather short temper and it only got worse since he became governor, at least when he was vice-governor, Jokowi was there to direct his bad attitude so it would come out in the safest, most proper time). Eventually, an ultimatum was made by an Islamist movement called the "Front Pembela Islam" (Islamic Defenders Front) for Ahok to step down before he would be forced to. Ahok relented, stepping down and surrendering to the police. He served in jail until 2019, when he was released under a parole.



However, this incident ended up backfiring on the political Islam movement. Ahok's downfall garnered a lot of international attention and criticism and led to Indonesians, most of whom had previously regarded the growth of Islamism as a joke, to become aware that there are people who don't like their country's secularist constitution, and will do anything to abolish it, including violence. As a result, authorities began to seriously regulate religious growth, clamping down on sites promoting radical views and banishing and/or arresting people who went too far to promote radicalism. For the 2019 elections, Jokowi chose as vice-president Ma'ruf Amin, a moderate Islamic cleric, something that analysts noted is a way to appease the pious while preventing the more radical elements from taking force.

Trivia and information about Indonesia

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Administrative divisions

Economy

During the colonial era, Indonesia was known as a producer of spices such as nutmeg, which is endemic to the Maluku islands. Today, Indonesia is a developing country and an important emerging market. It is the world's 16th largest economy (ranking right above its ex-colonizer, the Netherlands) and a member of the G20. Its exports include coal, petroleum oil and gases, and palm oil, while it imports machinery and chemicals. Indonesia was a longtime member of the OPEC, but decreasing oil wealth led to it exiting the bloc in 2008, having failed to meet production quota. Indonesia is well-known for its palm oil production, being the industry's top producer. Unfortunately, clearances for palm plantations have resulted in the rapid depletion of the country's rainforests since the late 20th century. For most of its history, Indonesia's main trade partner is Japan, though by the Turn of the Millennium China has been quickly ascending to become a key trade partner. A large chunk of Indonesia's economy is still dominated by state, who owns several important enterprises, including its oil industry. The Indonesian rupiah is infamous for its steep exchange rate (1 USD = 14,000 IDR as of November 2019), at least on face value. This was the result of the hyperinflation the country experienced during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when the currency was floated and ended up depreciating ten times its previous value. Although it has recovered and become stable in recent years, the currency stays around the same range. Do note, however, that the rate is deceptive and no way an indication of living costs, which are generally on the same level as other middle income countries.

Geography and Nature

Popular tourist destinations include: Bali, the island east of Java that is easily more well-known than the country itself. It boasts beautiful beaches and various cultural attractions (most of the island is Hindu). It was also the target of a 2002 bombing by the terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah, which killed 200+ people, mostly Australian tourists. With how it came just a year after 9/11, western tourists predictably stayed away from Bali for a while, though recent years have seen numbers rising to pre-2002 level. Bunaken reefs, off the coast of Manado, north Sulawesi/Celebes. It's the only place other than Madagascar where the Coelacanth is found (discovered by foreigners in the nineties, locals call it "raja laut" (king of the sea)). Explosive fishing, however, has damaged the reefs. Raja Ampat (Four Kings) Islands, located off the coast of New Guinea, known for its rich coral reef ecosystems and possibly the richest in the world. Komodo Island, home of the infamous komodo dragons, is a part of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Borobudur, a monumental Buddhist complex and one of the Wonders of the World.

It is the place where Komodo Dragons live. And Orangutans. And Javanese rhinoceros. Ironically, illegal logging is common in places like Sumatra and Kalimantan, and biodiversity as a whole has been taking a big hit for a while. Enough that some say that Indonesia no longer deserves the title "Emerald of the Equator". Another unique animal hailing from Indonesia is the proboscis/long-nosed monkey, in which Indonesians called it 'Bekantan', mostly found in Kalimantan. It's basically a monkey with big, red nose. It's mostly known as the species used by the mascot of Jakarta's biggest theme park Dunia Fantasi/Dufan (Fantasy World) ◊ .

Backpacking culture is rising since late 2012 thanks to local travel youtuber and TV personalities (Jalan Jalan Men and such) and the introduction of traveling and cheap flight / hotel apps, becoming borderline lifestyle. There's a lot of controversies around this however, especially on "cheap travelers" that occasionally damaged the world-renowned travel destination like mentioned above with vandalism and throwing garbage everywhere. Indonesia's capsule hotel businesses is also getting hotter, noted for affordable luxury and novelty, like Bobobox and they even add ones in airport and stations.

and they even add ones in airport and stations. There was another hot spot in Indonesia: Timor-Leste, one of the newest countries to be formed (around over ten years ago, to be exact). Unlike most Indonesian territories, which are mostly former Dutch colonies, East Timor was a Portuguese territory (the reason that the Spanish came first at 1512 to the Spice Islands, followed by Portuguese, and then the Dutch). It wasn't until The '70s that Portugal left. Faced with the options of integrating to Indonesia, remaining independent, and becoming a province of Portugal, a bitter conflict erupted. A landmark case involving pro-independence Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin) and a pro-integration Timorese Democratic Union (TDU) sparked the Indonesian invasion of the region (after one declaration, dubbed "Balibo Declaration" by the TDU, Indonesia took it as a "go-ahead" signal to start "securing" the place). After the turmoil of 1998, under Habibie's presidency, East Timor was given a free and fair referendum, in which most of the people voted independence. Many feared of the balkanization of Indonesia much like the Soviet Union, but thankfully, none has appeared so far (though Aceh was almost given a precedent, until six years later (see below)) . A similar case is West Papua, which declared independence 50 years ago. The indigenous people are of the same ethnicity (and even overall landmass) as the Papua New Guineans. A large group of West Papuans have formed a political alliance and numerous times tried to declare independence from indonesia. This generally ends in violence . Unlike East Timor, they have had no Australian or US support, which may or may not be due to the large US and Australian corporations benefiting immensely from the wealth of the province. Foreign journalists are not allowed in the region, and the independence flag for West Papua is banned. Like the East Timorese, the Papuans are a sort of a Butt-Monkey (not helped by the fact that most of them still prefer to live "the native's way", i.e. in the jungle), but then, that status can be extended to just about every people from Eastern Indonesia (say it the wrong way, "Orang Timur" (Eastern People) can be a ''highly" pejorative term for those folks).

Aceh was the region hit the hardest by the 2004 tsunami along with Sri Lanka, which coincidentally was also fighting a rebellion. About 60,000 people was killed by the tsunami, mostly thanks to the rather poor infrastructure. Much of it was still in ruins long after the tsunami, no thanks to rampant corruption in government aid programs. Muslims like to point out the fact that a mosque close to the beach stood unharmed after the tsunami note most likely, since mosques are typically built by the community (thus relatively corruption-free), as well as actually built to last; there are still many ancient wooden mosques in Indonesia. . On the positive side, it got the government and GAM ("Gerakan Aceh Merdeka", the movement for Aceh's independence) to sign a peace treaty. To this day, Aceh is the most known of the autonomous regions in Indonesia, probably because it made headline news for adopting sharia laws in an era of increasing Islamophobia (to stop the rebellion, the Indonesian government made concessions for them specifically to do just that). Many foreign humanitarian organizations came to help after the tsunami, but fundamentalist Muslims, accused them of "Christianization". Some fundies also claimed that the tsunami was caused by a US nuclear test, citing the blackening bodies of the dead as a proof. The US Navy deployed the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to help reconstruction and supplies distribution, however the Indonesian government refused to grant them the permission for the pilots' mandatory regular training (most likely because the image of US planes training over Indonesian soil would seriously piss off the fundies), forcing it to leave.

. On the positive side, it got the government and GAM ("Gerakan Aceh Merdeka", the movement for Aceh's independence) to sign a peace treaty. To this day, Aceh is the most known of the autonomous regions in Indonesia, probably because it made headline news for adopting sharia laws in an era of increasing Islamophobia (to stop the rebellion, the Indonesian government made concessions for them specifically to do just that). Indonesian roads are often very small, and the ones that aren't are always stuffed with restaurant tents on the sides. Motorcycles are incredibly common since they're cheaper and more suitable in navigating the alleys than cats.

Jakarta has tons of shopping malls of varying sizes.

Speaking of floods, the city of Jakarta is rather notorious that every once in five years, there will be a great flood rushing into Jakarta, causing atomic blackouts, and occasionally, the floods would even reach adult's chest. For about a week or less. Starting from the end of the 2000's, this has been greatly reduced thanks to the infrastructure improvement provided by Jokowi & Ahok. However, at late 2010's (especially after Ahok left the office), heavy floods started to come again.

Jakarta is also notorious as one of the most crowded, vehicle-infested cities out there, with some calling it 'the city with worst traffic jam in the world'. Because of the above, whenever you drive a vehicle, sometimes you will find people just standing up in the road and guiding cars on when to cross or make a U-turn. They may request small tip for services (in as much as you give to beggars), but in times when there's a big traffic jam, they can be vital to make sure your vehicle doesn't bump into others, so giving them money, while optional, is often considered being grateful, and if their services gets you through really hard situation, giving more money than usual is often considered much more grateful. Indonesians call these guys 'Pak Ogah', literally translated 'Mr. Reluctant', but actually based on the same-named character from a traditional puppet TV show "Si Unyil", who's a Lazy Bum, since while actually useful in roads at times, in other times it could also add up to the traffic jam problems, or being considered a job for rather lazy people. Then again, considering Indonesia's turbulent economic situation...

For a Southeast Asia nation, Indonesia is a home of many snakes, including around 360 species and 76 of them are venomous and yet they only have antivenoms for three species so far. For the most part, snake bites were handled with a more 'general' antivenom, or traditional healing. Therefore, getting bitten by a snake in Indonesia could be one of the deadliest things in the nation... well, as long as you don't provoke them. However, with less knowledge on snakes and Indonesia still pushing on modernization on rural areas, it's only a matter of time that the modern people encounter the snakes that was driven away from their old home (usually by accident, since there are lots of tall grasses in rural areas of Indonesia where farmers work, farmers are more likely to encounter snakes by chance while either cutting grasses or walking through the territory, accidentally provoking the snakes), though death by snake bites is still rare in the country. note A recent case of death happened to a dangdut singer, who known to perform with snakes for a long time, died in the hospital after being bitten on stage. Later revealed the snake was tamed by a pseudo-snake charmer.

Culture

Cuisine

Indonesian cuisine mostly involves spices note even though they are optional . Causing stereotype that most Indonesians enjoy the taste. Java is a partial inversion. Sure, you'd still have super-hot sambal varieties in Java, but the taste of most Javanese foods itself is actually quite mild; the taste of some foods (as in, main courses) even lean towards sweet. At least, in the "hot" sense , anyway. The "sweet" cuisines are pretty much also loaded with spices, though not nearly as piquant/tongue-raping.

. Causing stereotype that most Indonesians enjoy the taste. As mentioned above, sambal (essentially chili mixed with other ingredients then ground) is one of the quintessential sauce in Indonesian cuisine, Western and Central Indonesia in particular. There exists specific sambal variations accompanying just about every kind of cuisine in Indonesia. Not only that, there is at least one unique sambal variety in a given region which is found nowhere else in or outside the country. One can probably spend a good chunk of their life just studying sambal mixes throughout Indonesia.

"Bakso" (meatballs) and "siomay" (dumplings) are often sold on roadsides on wagons as one of the most common sources of income for the lower class. It should be noted that despite being derivated from the Chinese Shumai, "Siomay" has a stark difference. First and foremost, the main spice used for Siomay is spicy peanut sauce and sometimes sweet soy sauce (see below), and they're more likely to use fishes than other kinds of seafoods or other types of meats. It's pretty popular for students as street food and sometimes you see some local stores specializing in them but don't think you'll see this kind of "Siomay" in Dim Sum menus (Shumai will be there, though).

A common dressing on Indonesian food is kecap (soy sauce), made with water, soy and brown sugar. The kind sold in plastic bottles in the stores are usually pitch black, while the kind sold in large glass bottles at the countryside is usually thicker and brown. Indonesians usually recognize 2 types of kecap. One is sweet kecap, the other is salty kecap. Aside from the obviously explanatory difference in taste, they're generally discernable by their viscosity and aroma. Sweet kecap is quite thick, while salty kecap is basically like water or vinegar, except black. There are also variations made by mixing spices to the basic 2 tastes of kecap to produce other tastes. The British colonizers brought some back to Britain. Several culinary experiments involving tomatoes later, "ketchup" was born.

A kind of unique Indonesian food made of soy is "tempe", made by boiling soy several times over, seeding it with a particular kind of yeast note which is Serious Business on its own since if you used the wrong fungi, you can end up fatally poisoning people. Thankfully, fatal cases are more or less a thing of the past.

Tea is usually served plain or with sugar. Tea with milk is rarely served outside of some restaurants. Iced tea is sold in bottles, mostly by the tea company Sosro, leading to the famous slogan "Apapun makanannya, minumnya Teh Botol Sosro!" (Whatever you're eating, drink Sosro bottled tea!) note A common way of spoofing it is by putting the slogan on a picture of Sumanto, a convicted cannibal.

Perhaps the most popular branch of Indonesian cuisine is West Sumatran cuisine (otherwise known as Padang food note although there is no such thing named 'Padang' food in the town named Padang, which is incidentally the capital of West Sumatra. ) cuisine, usually sold in the so-called "rumah makan Padang" note There are also no "rumah makan Padang" in Padang, believe it or not! The proper term is Kapau IINM. , distinguishable by food plates stacked on each other on the front window. Most such restaurants will put out all they have to offer on the table with the exception of certain menus, and let you pick whatever you want to eat. Payment will be counted according to what's eaten and what's not after you're done eating (counting is done per plate, so polish them off!). The reason it become popular? While most Indonesian cuisine is spicy, the spices is different, thus it is different kind of spicy. Padang food taste general enough that it palatable to most Indonesian, hence the popularity.

) cuisine, usually sold in the so-called "rumah makan Padang" , distinguishable by food plates stacked on each other on the front window. Most such restaurants will put out all they have to offer on the table with the exception of certain menus, and let you pick whatever you want to eat. Payment will be counted according to what's eaten and what's not after you're done eating (counting is done per plate, so polish them off!). The city of Manado, North Sulawesi boasts an exotic cuisine that called Tikus (rat) Rica-rica.

There's a great variety of coffee beans in Indonesia, their aromas and taste varying by region. Most foreigners are familiar with Java beans, but there are many more, from Toraja, Aceh, Mandailing, Bali, and more, each with their own palate. You can get coffee that tastes really sour from Bali, really bitter from Mandailing, and some variations that are even spicy, as in, hot. Preparation also differs from region to region, with some adding butter to it.

What Indonesian eats (sometimes) really differs from one place to the other; from how people prefer it sweet and spicy in one place, while the other likes it plain SPICY to where in one place people have dogs for dinner while in another people eat caterpillars. One thing most (native) Indonesians agree not to eat is pork, since a large number of them are Muslim. Rice is considered staple food item for most areas especially on the western side; to the east, expect sago and yam. About the pork. There are still considerable people that eat it, mostly from two ethnic groups, Chinese and Bataknese (Balinese also much more creative with their pork, but they mostly keep it in their small island). It's also quite prevalent in the eastern parts of Indonesia. The pork ranged from soup based to roasted crispy. The best one are usually in Sumatra. How to find restaurant that serve pork in Indonesia? It's easy in some cities in Sumatra. Especially Medan, with its high population of Chinese and Batak. Some restaurant in Javanese cities also serve Pork, though you have to take an extra step. Be careful, as some place don't serve pork at all, and the word for pork (babi) held the same level as the word sh*t in Bahasa Indonesia. The safest way is to go to Chinese, Bataknese, or Balinese restaurant and ask about B2.

Western, in particular Fried Chickens, and Japanese food are fairly popular in Indonesia, especially those of fast foods. KFC, A&W, Burger King, McDonald's, etc are such examples. Indonesian McDonalds also went as far as including Fried Chicken menus, that hasn't been in most of McDonalds in other country, as does many normally burger-based restaurants if they are in Indonesia. Many western restaurant add rice to their menu because it's a surefire way to have customer, since the majority of Indonesians have rice as a staple of their diet. And most fast food restaurant require a high-school degree before working there.

Traditional snacks popular in Indonesia include: Fried tofu. This comes in two distinct varieties: filled and/or coated with dough, or plain note often called Sumedang-style fried tofu . Fried banana. Indonesians don't really differentiate between bananas and plantains, so anything goes. Fried thinly-sliced tempe (thicker slices are typically eaten with rice instead). This comes in two distinct varieties: typical 'dried' tempe and Mendoan note softer-textured, which is not cooked as long as the 'dried' version . Bakwan, which is basically a fried lump of dough mixed with sliced cabbage, spring onions, and carrot. Might include shrimp. Keripik. Basically chips of all sorts, sometimes even fruits (apples, bananas, and jackfruits are popular choice). Martabak, which comes in two totally-different varieties. The sweet variant is made from essentially two layers of fried dough with the (sweet) topping of your choice in-between. The savory variant, which is a more direct derivative of the Arabian mutabbaq, is basically an omelette inside folded thin dough. Many scholar hypothesize that sweet martabak were inspired by pancake, and since one mainstay ingredients is chocolate hagelslag (known here as meises after mispronouncing of meisje, since Dutch girls LOVE this sprinkly things) it's possible that it was Dutch influence. Pempek, fried fish cakes in a dough, served with a mix of salty soy sauce and vinegars that can also give a hot taste, plus cucumbers and a small portion of noodles. Originating from South Sumatra (especially Palembang, their capital), but funnily its most popular origin was from China, as in, there's a Chinese cook who stayed at Palembang, serving fish cakes. The locals came to like the food, the old cook is called "Pek-Apek", slang for 'old man' for Indo-Chinese, which then evolved into "Empek-empek" and THEN shortened to "Pempek" for the food, not the old man.

Much like several East and Southeast Asian countries; in the city Jakarta on Mangga Besar district, you can find a rare store where they sell cooked reptilians, including venomous snakes and their organs (don't worry, just stay away from the snakes (especially the head, it can still kill you if it's still moving up to 1 hour after being beheaded, see here for a similar incident in China) and leave it to the pro to cook them). Kind of exotic and actually gives good benefits to the body, but the organs definitely tasted bitter.

Instant noodle have a special place in the public consciousness, being cheap, tasty, while still easy enough to cook with minimal skill and equipment. While mostly sold by street food vendor, there are cafes that specialize on instant noodles. There's also a nationalist pride since the Indomie brand managed to (no kidding) become popular in other countries; from Japan to India to even English and USA, all of them gave praises to their imported Indomie brands. Enough to become a meme amongst Indonesians.

Military

Indonesia's military force is called the TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, Indonesia National Army). The branches are TNI Angkatan Darat (Army), TNI Angkatan Laut (Navy) and TNI Angkatan Udara (Air Force). They have several spec ops groups, most notably Kopassus (Komando Pasukan Khusus). Aside from doing things the government isn't comfortable to admitting in Timor Leste, Malaysia and Aceh, they've also participated in the UNPROFOR. They also have a marine corps, which is attached to the Navy. They're pretty well-equipped, operating BTR-80 APCs and PT-76 amphibious tanks, however they're relatively unheard of compared to the other branches.

As for their equipments: The standard service rifle is the SS1 (Senapan Serbu = assault rifle), a licensed copy of the Belgian FN FNC carbine made by the government corporation (BUMN) PT Pindad. HK G3, M16 and 5.45 mm AK variants are also used, the latter oddly enough are more often seen in the hand of cops guarding ATMs while they're being filled. The spec ops units often use M4, HK G36 and Steyr-Mannlicher AUG. Recently, PT Pindad starts manufacturing an assault rifle called the SS2, which looks like an M16 with AK gas block, reversed front sight and slightly different detachable carrying handle. It's considered a lot more reliable than the previous model. As for sniper rifles, they mostly use the Remington 700, HK G3SG1 and the much-hated Galil-Galatz[[note]] The special forces also use the PGM Hecate II, a .50 caliber French bolt-action rifle. Pindad has also been producing anti-material rifles whose designs are juxtaposed from other successful sniper and anti-material rifles. They own several French AMX light tanks, as main battle tanks aren't suitable for the Indonesian streets. It's more likely due to the abundance of rainforests, which slows most MB Ts down. They also operate BTR-80 APCs and V-150 Commando IFVs. Early Cold War-era British armored cats also appear occassionally. Land Rover Defenders and Singapore's Flyer are used by both the police and the army, sometimes mounted with anti-aircraft guns or Singapore's CIS automatic grenade launchers. The South African Casspir is used by the police. The military has recently decided to buy a relatively large quantity of Leopard mk2 tanks from the Dutch government at bargain bin prizes, which faced opposition from the House of Representatives who claimed such heavy tanks are not suitable for Indonesian soil. Some consider that kind of reasoning as a load of crap, however, and claims that the House are against it because the purchase is done government to government, eliminating the role of brokers who usually 'fund' some House members. As for the local ones, Pindad also has started producing the Pindad Panser (meaning armored cat), a rather plain looking APC, but that wouldn't be necessarily bad if Indonesia's equipments don't have the nasty tendency to fall apart at the worst possible moment. They have also made several anti-riot vehicles. They have F-16 and Su-27 fighters. They also have A-4 Skyhawk and OV-10 Bronco ground attack crafts, but don't like to admit it, the former because they were bought from Israel, and the latter because they were bought for COIN operations in East Timor. The TNI AU is the second military forces outside of the US to operate the C-130 Hercules cargo planes. They have several black Mi-24 Hind gunships. The Mi-8 Hip helicopter is used by both the army and the police. The navy owns several types of naval helicopters, mostly British. The Broncos have been pulled from service and the Air Force has been thinking of getting their hands on a Super Tucano for a while. There's also been talks of cooperating with South Korea in a joint venture to produce a new 4.5th generation fighter, or get some new T-50s which were recently unveiled.

The police force is called Polri (Polisi Republik Indonesia). Regional units are called Polda (Polisi Daerah). The Brimob (Brigade Mobil) is pretty much the Indonesian SWAT, only they're less specialized and often perform tasks commonly done by the normal cops in foreign countries. Of note is the Densus 88, which is basically the anti-terrorist unit of the country. Their exploits are among the most widely publicized, and rightly so, if for somewhat conflicting reasons.



Famous Indonesians

Indonesia in foreign media

See also:

The Indonesian flag

details Indonesia's flag's height to width ratio is 2 to 3, while Monaco's flag's is 4 to 5 . Red and white are the colors of the Majapahit Empire, and symbolize body and spirit, respectively, the components of a human being. Or alternatively, Red symbolizes "Bravery" (Berani), while White symbolizes "Purity" (Suci). Just don't turn it around and say it's Indonesia. The flag is very similar to that of Monaco , except it is longer. Red and white are the colors of the Majapahit Empire, and symbolize body and spirit, respectively, the components of a human being. Or alternatively, Red symbolizes "Bravery" (Berani), while White symbolizes "Purity" (Suci). Just don't turn it around and say it's Indonesia. Malaysia learned it the hard way.

Government