Indonesia

Indonesia is an island nation located in Oceania between Southeast Asia and Australia. Made up of 17,508 separate islands, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country—with roughly 237 million people—and contains the world’s largest Muslim population. Indonesia’s demographic make-up is extremely diverse, comprised of hundreds of ethnic groups and local languages. While some of the country’s citizens are urban cosmopolitans, living with all the modern conveniences of any capital city’s elite, others still live as hunter-gatherers in remote island villages.

Indonesia has witnessed both progress and setbacks in recent years. In 1997 the Asian Financial Crisis hit Indonesia particularly hard, leading to sharp price increases, massive unemployment and rioting. Popular unrest became so severe in 1998 that after 32 years of oppressive and corrupt authoritarian rule, Indonesian President General Suharto was forced to step down. The change in leadership led to a general strengthening of democratic processes, and the country held its first democratic elections in 2004. The post-Suharto years have also brought numerous challenges. The southeastern region of East Timor became the independent nation Timor-Leste in 1999, encouraging many more separatist movements to clamor for self-rule. The army is currently waging war with separatist guerillas in the oil-rich Aceh region, and a more peaceful independence movement is flourishing in the resource-rich Papua province. Militant Islamist groups have also gained currency in Indonesia, some with alleged links to Al Qaeda. The 2002 Bali bombing, which killed over 200 people, brought international attention to this growing problem. The 2004 South Asian tsunami also wrecked havoc on the nation’s infrastructure, causing greater harm to the already struggling economy.  Poverty remains a severe problem, especially in the growing slums of Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta and the nation’s rural villages.