Unbeknown to many in Indonesia, international public opinion of their country has taken a turn for the worse this past month following a series of media reports that could just lead to a downgrade of its credentials as the third-largest democracy in the world.



While it never exactly enjoyed a “Triple A” rating for its democratic standing, Indonesia has come

a long way since the demise of the Soeharto dictatorship in 1998 to earn its place among democratic nations.



Not only today is it recognized as the largest democracy in the world after India and the United States, Indonesia has also come to be described as the largest democracy among Muslim-majority nations.



That view, however, may have been shattered by two recent reports on Indonesia: The ridiculously light sentences meted by a court against the murderous perpetrators of a mob attack on followers of Ahm...