Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia), is a nation of 18,110 islands in the South East Asian Archipelago, making it the world's largest archipelagic state. Its capital is Jakarta. Indonesia is bordered by the nations of Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. With a population of over 200 million, it is the world's fourth most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority nation.
The Indonesian Archipelago, home of the Spice Islands, has been an important trade destination since early Chinese sailors began to find profit in the spice trade during ancient times. Much of Indonesia's history has been influenced by the many foreign powers that have been drawn to the archipelago by its wealth of natural resources. These have included Classical Hindus and Buddhists from India, Muslim traders in medieval times, and Europeans during the Age of Exploration, who fought for monopolization of the spice trade. Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for over three centuries; however, the nation declared its independence in 1945, which was internationally recognized four years later. Since then, the region has had a turbulent history, including political instability and corruption, periods of rapid economic growth and decline, environmental catastrophe, and a recent democratization process.
Indonesia is a unitary state consisting of numerous distinct ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups spread across its numerous islands. The modern borders of Indonesia are based upon those of the Dutch East Indies colony, rather than on any preconceived notion of unity. However, a shared history of colonialism, rebellion against it, a national Indonesian language, and a religious majority of Islam help to define Indonesia as a state. Indonesia's national motto, Bhinneka tunggal ika (derived from Old Javanese for unity in diversity), reflects the amalgamation of the country's myriad cultures, languages, and ethnic groups. However, sectarian tensions have threatened political stability in some regions, leading to violent confrontations and the secession of East Timor.

Indonesia is a republic and a unitary state with a presidential system and power concentrated with the national government. The President of Indonesia is directly elected for a term of five years, and is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the Indonesian armed forces, and responsible for domestic governance, policy-making and foreign affairs. The president appoints a council of ministers, who are not required to be elected members of the legislature.
The highest legislative body is the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), an umbrella organization that consists of the People's Representative Council (DPR), and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). The DPR is the lower house and its 550 members are elected for five-year terms on a proportional representation basis from each of Indonesia's 33 provinces. The DPD is a new chamber coming into effect in 2004 and is charged with managing regional representation within the central national government.  Each province elects 4 members on a non-partisan basis. The DPD does not have, however, the revising powers of an upper house such as the United States Senate, rather it is restricted to bills concerning matters of regional management.
The Supreme Court is the highest level of the judicial branch. Its judges are appointed by the president. Each province has its own High Court.
Indonesia is a founding member of the Association of South East Asian Nations, and is therefore a member of both ASEAN+3 and the East Asia Summit. Since the 1980s, Indonesia has worked to develop close political and economic ties between South East Asian nations, and is influential in the Organization of Islamic Conference. During Suharto's presidency, Indonesia built strong relations with the United States, while it had difficult relations with the People's Republic of China due to Suharto's anti-communist policies and domestic tensions with the Chinese ethnic community.

Economy

Major agricultural products include palm oil, rice, tea, coffee, spices and rubber and major industries include Petroleum and natural gas, textiles, apparel, and mining. Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank was established in 1974 and received its independent central bank status in 1999.In 2005, the industrial production growth rate was 4.8% per annum, ranking 73rd in the world. Major trading partners include Japan, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia.
The country has extensive natural resources outside Java, including crude oil, natural gas, tin, copper, and gold. Indonesia is the world's largest LNG producer, exporting about 20% of the world's total volume in 2002. Apparently, in 2005, the income from exports was larger than the import's expenditure with $83.64 billion and $62.02 billion respectively. Indonesia's imports commodities include machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, and foodstuffs.Despite being the only East Asian member of OPEC, Indonesia's fuel production has declined significantly over the years, owing to aging oil fields and lack of investment in new equipment. As a result, despite being an exporter of crude oil, Indonesia is now a net importer of oil and had previously subsidized fuel prices to keep prices low, costing US$ 7 billion in 200 The current president has mandated a significant reduction of government subsidy of fuel prices in several stages. In order to alleviate economic hardships, the government has offered one-time subsidies to qualified citizens. The government has stated to reduce subsidies, aiming to reduce the budget deficit to 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, down from around 1.7% last year. The real gross domestic product (GDP) of Indonesia is projected to reach 5.2% in the second half year of 2006.
In the late 1990s, Indonesia suffered a drastic economic downturn followed by a significant but at times patchy and only partial recovery. This was largely due to the financial crisis that struck much of east Asia at the time, but was exacerbated by perceptions of corruption at all levels and a perceived slow pace of economic reform.
Indonesia has received large amounts of economic aid from bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Although Indonesia finished its IMF program in December 2003, the country still receives bilateral aid through the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) which reached $2.8 billion for 2004 and 2005. Another aid package, totaling $5 billion, was granted through the NGO for the post-Tsunami reconstruction in Aceh. In total, Indonesia has received $43 billion in foreign aid.

Ethnic groups

Most Indonesians are ethnically Malay, particularly in central and western Indonesia, while much of eastern Indonesia is Melanesian in ethnic make up. There are, however, approximately 300 different native ethnicities in Indonesia and 742 different languages and dialects. Small but significant populations of ethnic Chinese, Indians and Arabs are concentrated mostly in urban areas. An almost universally shared sense of Indonesian nationhood overlays this vast diversity and steadfastly maintained regional identities, providing a largely harmonious society. Indonesia, however, is not without social tensions with religious and ethnic differences triggering sometimes horrendous violence.

The Transmigration program contributed to the spread of people from highly populated Java and Madura to eastern Indonesia. Ethnic and religious differences between these immigrants and the local peoples have been blamed for numerous difficulties, sometimes culminating in bloody conflicts such as those between the Javanese and the Maduranese, the massacre of hundreds of Madurese by a local Dayak community in West Kalimantan, Maluku, Central Sulawesi, and parts of Papua and West Irian Jaya.
The Chinese Indonesians are arguably the most influential ethnic minority in Indonesia. Although the Chinese make up 2% of the population, the majority of the country's businesses and wealth is Chinese-controlled. This has caused considerable resentmentdespite the fact that it is only a small proportion of Chinese that hold great wealth, and there are now large numbers of prosperous, middle class non-Chinese. The riots in Jakarta in 1998 in the weeks leading up to the resignation of long time president Suharto were the most deadly recent expressions of these sentiments.

Languages

The official national language, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesian), is universally taught in schools and is spoken by nearly every Indonesian. It is the language of business, politics, national media, education and academia. Yet, in isolated areas even on the major islands it is not uncommon to find villagers who are not familiar with Indonesian.It was originally a lingua franca for most of the region, including present-day Malaysia (and is thus closely related to Malay), accepted by the Dutch as the de facto language for the colony, and declared the official language after independence.
Most Indonesians speak at least one of the several hundred local languages (bahasa daerah), often as their first language. Of these, Javanese is the most widely-spoken language, as it is the language of the largest ethnic group.

Religion

Although all 6 recognised religions are represented thoughout Indonesia, this maps shows the majority group for each area
Although the Indonesian constitution guarantees religious freedom for all, the Government officially only recognises six religions, namely Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation with almost 86% of Indonesians declared Muslim according to the 2000 census. 11% of the population is Christian (of which roughly two-thirds are Protestant), 2% Hindu, and 1% Buddhist.
Before the arrival of the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity and Islam to the Malay Archipelago, the popular belief systems in the region were thoroughly influenced by Indic religious philosophy through Hinduism and Buddhism. The influence of Hinduism and classical India remain defining traits of Indonesian culture; including the Indian concept of the god-king which still shapes Indonesian concepts of leadership; the use of Sanskrit in courtly literature and adaptations of Indian mythology such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The vast majority of today's Indonesian Hindus are Balinese who, similar to abangan Muslims, follow a version of Hinduism fused with existing cultural and religious beliefs and markedly distinct from orthodox Hinduism. The Sumatra-based Sriwijaya kingdom of the 7th century AD was the center of Buddhism in Indonesia, however, most Buddhists in Indonesia today are ethnic Chinese.

Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, reportedly the largest in South East Asia
Islam was first brought to northern Sumatra by Arab traders in the 13th century and had become Indonesia's dominant religion by the 15th century. Although Islam was once mainly practiced in Java and Sumatra, emigration, largely from Java, has increased the number of Muslims living in Bali, Borneo, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua. Like other religions in Indonesia, Islam has blended with local traditional beliefs such as those practiced by the Abangan Muslims on Java and with other belief systems in northern Sumatra and Kalimantan. Such syncretic practises draw on distinctly Indonesian customs and typically differ from more Orthodox Islam by favoring local customs over Islamic law. One notable difference includes a generally greater level of freedom and higher social status for women. The majority of Indonesian Muslims are generally accepting of differing religious practices and interpretations within their own faith. At the same time, Muslims in Indonesia are typically devout; many have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, for example. More Orthodox Muslims who believe in a strict adherence to Sharia make up a significantly smaller but growing percentage of the population; for example, the wearing of a jilbab is becoming more common. There is also a small but outspoken hard-line Islamist presence in Indonesia, including movements such as Indonesian Mujahedeen Council. Most Indonesian Muslims are wary of these movements, some of which seek to supplant the Indonesian government and establish an Islamic state.
Catholicism was first brought to Indonesia by early Portuguese colonialists and missionaries, and the Protestant denominations are largely a result of Dutch Calvinist and Lutheran missionary efforts during its colonial time, although these efforts did not extend to Java or other predominantly Muslim areas. As with Islam and Hinduism, many Christian beliefs in Indonesia are combined with animism and other traditional beliefs and cultural practices.
Culture
The 9th century Buddhist monument, Borobudur in Central Java
Indonesia has around 300 ethnic groups each with cultural differences which have shifted over the centuries and the concept of Indonesian culture is a fusion of this diversity. One example is the Borobudur temple, which is a mix of Hinduism and Javanese culture, as it was built by a Javanese dynasty, the Sailendra. Indonesia has also imported cultural aspects from Arabic, Chinese, Malay and European sources.
Art forms in Indonesia have been influenced by several cultures. Traditional Javanese and Balinese dances, for example, contain aspects of Hindu culture and mythology as does the Javanese and Balinese wayang kulit shadow puppet shows, depicting several mythological events. Cloth such as batik, ikat and songket are created across Indonesia with different areas having different styles and specialisations. The most dominant influences on Indonesian architecture have traditionally been Indian, however, European architecture has had a significant influence, particularly from the 19th century. Pencak Silat is a unique martial art originating from the archipelago.


A Wayang kulit shadow puppet performance as seen by the audience
Indonesian music varies within cities and groups as people who live in the countryside would listen to a different kind of music than people in the city. Although rock was introduced in Indonesia by Indonesian rock band, God Bless (see Ian Antono), native Indonesian music is still preserved. Examples of Indonesian traditional music are Gamelan and Keroncong. A more modern form of Indonesian native music is Dangdut. The movie industry's popularity peaked in the 1980s and dominated cinemas in Indonesia, although it fell significantly in the early 1990s. For instance, in 1990, 115 local movies were produced while only 37 movies produced in 1993. However, as of the year 2000, the movie industry has improved gradually with a number of successful movies.
Media freedom in Indonesia increased considerably after the end of President Suharto's rule, during which the now-defunct Ministry of Information monitored and controlled domestic media and restricted foreign media. The TV market includes 10 national commercial networks, which compete with public TVRI. Some provinces also operate their own stations. Private radio stations carry their own news bulletins and foreign broadcasters can supply programmes. The radio dial is crowded, with scores of stations on the air in Jakarta alone. Internet use is increasing Bisnis Indonesia reported in 2004 that there were 10 million users.