Indonesia Today

Nothing ever seems settled in Indonesia, whether it's the land, the sea or society itself. Yet there was justifiable cause for celebration after the 2014 national elections continued the almost entirely peaceful traditions set during the previous elections five years earlier. Not bad for a country with a violent political past, including a 1965 political genocide recalled by two widely praised documentaries. Still, economic and environmental challenges remain hugely significant as the nation feels its way to the future.

Best on Film

The Act of Killing (directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012) A searing Oscar-nominated documentary about the 1965 slaughter of accused Communist sympathisers in Indonesia, which resulted in over 500,000 deaths and remains a taboo subject today.

Look of Silence (directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014) The follow-up to Act of Killing follows an optician as he confronts men accused of killing his brother during the 1965 slaughters.

Shackled (directed by Upi Avianto, 2012) A man driving in Jakarta finds a character in a rabbit suit and an abused woman in his car, with horrifying consequences. Avianto is one of Indonesia's most popular directors; her films are usually commercial successes.

Sang Penari (The Dancer, directed by Ifa Isfansyah, 2011) Based on a trilogy of novels by Ahmad Tohari, this critically acclaimed film focuses on a young man and a Javanese village's new poetic dancer.

Eat Pray Love (directed by Ryan Murphy, 2010) A flop at the box office and with critics, the film is Bali’s glossiest appearance on screen. Look for Ubud and Padang Padang beach.

Best in Print

A Brief History of Indonesia (2015) Indonesian expert Tim Hannigan's highly readable and entertaining narrative.

Indonesia Etc (2014) Elizabeth Pisani's brilliant travelogue and exploration of the nation.

This Earth of Mankind (1980) A canvas of Indonesia under Dutch rule by Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925–2006), one of Indonesia's top writers.

Stranger in the Forest (1988) Eric Hansen was possibly the first nonlocal to walk across Borneo.

Krakatoa – The Day the World Exploded (2003) Simon Winchester melds history, geology and politics, all centred on the 1883 eruption.

Etiquette

Places of worship Be respectful in sacred places. Remove shoes and dress modestly when visiting mosques; wear a sash and sarong at Bali temples.

Body language Use both hands when handing somebody something. Don't show displays of affection in public, or talk with your hands on your hips (it's seen as a sign of aggression).

Clothing Avoid showing a lot of skin, although many local men wear shorts. Don't go topless if you're a woman (even on Bali); you'll incite trouble in conservative areas and simply offend in others.

Photography Before taking photos of someone, ask – or mime – for approval.

Custom Respond to requests for donations and to fill in guestbooks in remote villages.

Jokowi

He was called the Indonesian Obama, and that exemplified the biggest hurdles that Joko Widodo faced after he won the landmark 2014 Indonesian election. The first democratically elected Indonesian president with no obvious ties to the old Suharto dictatorship or the military, Jokowi, as he’s commonly known (or simply Joko), carried the dreams of every Indonesian who wants a brighter future for his or her country.

It's a huge load to carry and initially it seemed to overwhelm Jokowi. First came the wake-up call to wild expectations. Yes, he had humble roots and yes, he'd gained much praise as a reform-minded governor of Jakarta. But as the newly elected president, he gave no indication of being a radical ready to tear Indonesia away from the clutches of the powerful elite and military which have held control for decades. His vice president, Jusuf Kalla, has strong ties to the status quo (and in the landmark documentary Act of Killing, there's a clip of Kalla encouraging Suharto loyalists to commit violence). Jokowi took pains not to upset the establishment and in fact he showed an unexpected conservative streak.

He did nothing to stop the passage of religiously driven restrictions on the sale of alcohol and he tacitly allowed local governments in Aceh and elsewhere to become ever-more fundamentalist. And Indonesia's relationship with Australia – always prone to drama – took a dive after Jokowi didn't stop the executions of two members of the so-called Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in April, 2015. The pair had been convicted of drug offences in 2006 and had then languished in Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison during a long series of appeals and calls for clemency.

Many hoped that the perception of Jokowi as a man of the people would translate into compassion for prisoners but this was not the case. He not only rejected clemency for Chan and Sukumaran but stated that the 130 other people with Indonesian death sentences should expect similar treatment. Meanwhile, Indonesia's relations with Australia hit rock bottom as the plight of the Bali Nine became a cause celebre and ill-fated Australian prime minister Tony Abbott ineffectually demanded they receive compassion. (It should be noted, however, that calls for Australians to boycott their favourite party spot, Bali, were largely unheeded.)

Jokowi's efforts to establish himself as President were hindered by his very own political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), especially after the party's chief, former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, called him a mere functionary. His first cabinet was also filled with old party hacks who seemed more interested in quarrelling and jockeying for power than forcefully working to implement Jokowi's campaign promises of prosperity and economic fairness.

In August, 2015, Jokowi announced a major cabinet reshuffle, which saw technocrats named to replace party stalwarts as heads of powerful ministries. As he reached the end of his first year in office, Jokowi remained very much a work in progress as president, with many question marks around his ability to live up to his own lofty goals and those of the many people who had voted for him as a symbol of hope for a better Indonesia.

The Economy Sputters

For many years Indonesia has been one of Asia's top economic success stories. Its economy has grown by a robust 6% or more per year. But in 2015 this record ended as growth fizzled – the rate falling below 5% – which only added to the pressure on Jokowi.

Indonesia's rapidly expanding population requires a growth rate of at least 6% so that the economy can absorb all the people entering the workforce. And local expectations are high, especially after the boom years when fully half the population achieved middle class status as defined by the World Bank and a majority of workers no longer toiled in subsistence agriculture.

Meanwhile Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, all but collapsed against the US dollar. Although this is great for the relatively small number of US tourists who visit the archipelago, it's very bad news for Indonesia's small businesses which rely on goods and services with prices pegged to the dollar.

Economists says that Indonesia will have a hard time returning to rapid growth given that the prices of many of its exports like palm oil and coal have fallen. The nation's historic inefficiencies are also to blame. Protectionist laws and corruption benefit the old ruling class but do nothing to foster real competition. As an example, Indonesia's own anti-graft agency estimates that unlicensed forest clearing has cost the government billions in fees, money which could otherwise be used for vital projects to improve the nation's creaking – and often collapsing – infrastructure, itself a major drag on economic growth.

Unnatural Disasters

As the site of the modern world's greatest explosion (Gunung Tambora in 1815) and other cataclysms such as the tsunami in 2004, Indonesia has more than its fair share of natural disasters. In fact, volcanic eruptions are so frequent that when east Java's Gunung Raung and then Lombok's Gunung Rinjani sent out ash clouds which disrupted hundreds of flights to and from Bali in 2015, it was treated as routine by the local media.

But if nothing can be done about Indonesia's unsettled land and sea, it certainly seems like something could be done about the nation's propensity for manmade disasters. Over a two-year period starting in 2014, more than 350 people died in plane crashes, including 162 who died when an Indonesia AirAsia Airbus plunged into the ocean off Java just after Christmas 2014. The nation's dismal record for transport safety, which has been blamed on lax oversight and institutional malaise on the part of the airlines, seems intractable.

And if Indonesia's safety record is clouded, so too are its skies. Each year fires from (technically) illegal forest clearances on Sumatra and Kalimantan cause an acidic haze that blots out the sky over much of western Indonesia, as well as Singapore and parts of Malaysia (both countries drew harsh rebukes from Indonesia when they complained about the choking smoke).

In a break with past practice however, Jokowi personally asked for help from other nations in fighting the fires in 2015, which were the worst in two decades. It offered at least a hope that something might be done to tame the fires even as questions remained about whether any action would ever be taken against the palm oil producers, loggers and farmers responsible for the blazes and environmental destruction.

Population

255 million

Area

1,904,600 sq km

GDP per capita

US$3475

Number of islands

More than 17,000

Population density Java

1130 per sq km

Population density Papua

11 per sq km