Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0171/01718.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 562 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01718}
$Pretitle{239}
$Title{Indonesia
Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{islands
java
sea
sumatra
indonesia
island
area
indonesian
sulawesi
western}
$Date{1982}
$Log{Balinese Dancer*0171801.scf
}
Country:     Indonesia
Book:        Indonesia, A Country Study
Author:      Riga Adiwoso-Suprapto
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 2A.   The Society and Its Environment

[See Balinese Dancer: Artist's rendition of a young Balinese dancer performing
the Dance of the Heavenly Nymphs]

     Indonesians call their country "Our Lands and Waters" (Tanah Air Kita),
an appropriate name for a country of islands whose water surface area is
greater than its land area. The sea is an important part of Indonesian life,
providing the main share of protein in the daily diet and functioning both as
a pathway for communication and as a cultural barrier. The difficulty of
reaching the interior of many islands has served to foster social, cultural,
and economic isolation among the approximately 300 ethnic groups. The
archipelagic nature of the country-incorporating some 13,000 islands-has
provided naturally discrete regions where ethnic groups have been able to
develop a cultural core of their own, with varying degrees of input from
outside.

     Indonesia is known to be a meeting ground of cultural forces. Its
history must be interpreted in terms of the importation and adaptation of
ideas and philosophies from India, the Islamic world, China, and the West. The
complexity of modern Indonesian society can only be explained, however, in the
light of both indigenous foundations and foreign influences. Foreign
influences figured significantly in the shaping of Indonesian society, but to
seek to explain its evolution solely in terms of alien inspiration would be
wholly misleading. Belief in the underlying importance of harmony and
consensus and the value of maintaining man and nature in equilibrium have
enabled Indonesia to absorb outside influences without being absorbed itself.

     In the 1980s modern Indonesian society was still in transition. It had
absorbed those Western influences it felt were necessary to gain international
recognition and promote economic development; at the same time the government
was seeking to increase national consciousness and pride. But in its attempt,
the government had to confront a multiplicity of diverse ethnic traditions.
Those diverse traditions reflected a complex mosaic of self-conscious ethnic
groups distinguished by custom, ecological adaptation, religious belief and
practices, language and social organization.

     Although the government strives for the nationalist ideal of a homogenous
society and encourages the people to regard themselves as Indonesians,
feelings of ethnic distinctiveness remain strong; at the same time,
identification with an ethnic group is not felt to be incompatible with
loyalty to the Indonesian nation. The foundation for national consciousness
was laid through the experience of Dutch colonization and Japanese occupation
shared by the various ethnic groups.

     The majority of Indonesians are rural inhabitants, attached to the
traditional cultural values of the ethnic groups to which they belong. The
rural inhabitants present themselves as an undifferentiated group, solidly
loyal to each other; nonetheless, the social organization has continued to be
based on a centuries-old division between gentry and commoners. The
introduction of modern technological knowledge into the rural areas has
caused rapid change in social values, often producing a materialistic outlook
incompatible with a traditional orientation.

     In the 1980s social organization in the cities and towns was based on two
variables: the degree to which an urban inhabitant maintained an ethnic
heritage and the amount of Western influence exhibited in a life-style. At the
apex of urban society was a tiny segment of the elite stratum that preserved
only a minimal amount of its ethnic legacy, being oriented instead toward a
metropolitan cultural tradition modeled on that of the West. An important
characteristic of this metropolitan culture was its use of the Indonesian
language in literature, popular music, films, and everyday communication. The
rest of the elite stratum was also oriented toward metropolitan culture but
exhibited a larger degree of adherence to its ethnic heritage. Below the elite
stratum were middle and lower classes, whose members were mostly bicultural;
they retained features of their ethnic culture for certain domains in their
life, while adopting to metropolitan culture in others.

     Upward mobility in urban society was attained through a combination of
family connections, education, military background, and personal experience.
Yet, for many in the middle and lower classes, such mobility was hindered by
the steady increase in the labor force, which had resulted in severe
unemployment and underemployment problems. To alleviate the impact of these
conditions in both urban and rural areas, the government emphasized employment
expansion through agricultural development programs and efforts to promote
industrial growth.

     Another major problem was the uneven distribution of the population.
Java, comprising only 6.9 percent of the total land area, had almost 65
percent of the population. In the early 1980s the government was encouraging
voluntary migration to other, less densely populated islands, under what was
officially termed transmigration. The development plan Repelita III allocated
some Rp 109 trillion (for the value of the rupiah-see Glossary) to move
approximately 2.5 million people. The goal was highly optimistic, given the
difficulties in establishing basic community infrastructure and roads, coupled
with the harshness of the terrain in resettlement areas.

     In the urban centers the deep cleavage between the elite and the poorest
groups in society gave rise to such problems as prostitution, crime and
violence, and juvenile delinquency. Many rural inhabitants moved to the cities
with the hope of attaining a better life or earning enough money to send their
extended families in the countryside. In the cities they often failed to find
adequate employment, however, resulting in frustration and disappointment.
Against these frustrations inherent in modernization, kinship ties provided
security and economic support.

     The family-generally an extended one-was the central relationship in the
lives of most Indonesians. Personal welfare, as well as care for the
handicapped, was considered a family matter. Family networks also provided
employment opportunities for members. Although there was no specific ideal
family size, in general, children were desired as insurance for care in the
parents' old age. At every level of society, kinship and marriage reinforced
economic and social alliances.

Geography and Population

     Indonesia stretches some 5,120 kilometers from east to west across the
equator, the greater part being below the equator (see fig. 1). It is the
largest archipelagic nation in the world, encompassing 13,677 islands and
having a land and sea area of 4.8 million square kilometers, of which only
approximately 1.9 million square kilometers are land. Laid over a map of the
United States, the archipelago would considerably overlap New York and San
Francisco.

     Its geographic location at one of the world's major crossroads has made
Indonesia strategically important in the context of regional and superpower
rivalries. The country forms a natural barrier separating the Indian Ocean,
the South China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. With Malaysia, it commands the
Strait of Malacca-one of the world's busiest waterways. Through its islands
also pass other important sea routes from the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf
to China, Japan, and North and South America, including the passages of Selat
Sunda, Selat