Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is an archipelago of over 17,500 islands. Of its 245 million people, 86% – about 210 million – are Muslim which is the largest population of Muslims in any single nation (CIA 2007; Encyclopædia Britannica 2007). Since colonial independence in 1945 Indonesia has been a secular state that recognises religious freedom. The preamble of the 1945 constitution states the five-point ideology, called Pancasila which has survived as a philosophy of the Indonesian state. Its basic principles include: (1) Belief in one supreme God; (2) Humanity which is civil and just; (3) United Indonesia; (4) Wise representation of democracy; and (5) Social justice for every Indonesian citizen’ (Republic of Indonesia 2007; Waddell 2004).

Although Muslim traders perhaps from India, Arabia, Persia or China visited Indonesia in the immediate centuries after the life of the Prophet Islamic kingdoms in the Archipelago were only founded later in the thirteenth century (Bakti 2000). European colonisation of Indonesia began with the Portuguese in the sixteenth century followed by the Spanish, and finally the Dutch who by 1910 governed all of Indonesia (Bakti 2000; SBS 2004). The Japanese invaded in World War II and after their defeat Soekarno who was a co-leader of the political organisation Patai Nasional Indonesia (PNI) declared Indonesia independent and claimed the presidency. Over the next 4 years Soekarno’s troops fought both the Dutch and the Indonesian Islamic Army formed by the group Darul Islam who wanted Indonesia to be an independent Islamic state. The Republic of Indonesia was inaugurated in 1950 (SBS 2004).