Indonesia
This report will be on the History in Brief of Indonesia, the Government of
Indonesia, the island of Java, and the Geography of Indonesia. In early days,
the region from India to Japan, including Indonesia, was known to the Europeans
as the Indies. Chris Columbus was looking for a westward sea root from Europe to
the Indies, when he arrived in America. During 1600s the Dutch political control
began to spread Indonesia. Indonesia declared it’s independence in 1945 and
fought the Dutch until 1949, when they gave up their control. At first, the
Dutch allowed nationalist movement to develop. In 1905, it had introduced
councils to govern the towns and cities. By 1920, there were 32 such councils,
with little electoral franchise. Other councils were also established. They
included provincial councils in Java, and group communities councils outside
Java. The current government of Indonesia is based on a constitution written in
1945. A president serves as the head of government. The president appoints a
sheet of advisers consisting of top military leaders and civilians. In theory,
the assembly is supposed to establish a general direction of the government’s
policies. A house of peoples Representatives is the nation’s parliament,
however, in practice neither the assembly nor the house has real power. Instead,
it is the president who makes all of the important decisions. The president is
elected to a five-year term the Peoples Consultative assembly. The assembly has
1,000 members. It includes the 500 members of the people’s representatives. It
also includes 500 members of regional, occupational, and other groups. All
assembly members serve five-year terms. The assembly usually is only held once
every five years. The 500 members of the People’s Representatives includes 400
who are elected through a system that insures that the government’s political
organization win most of the seats. Serviceman have no vote, so the remaining
100 are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the commander of the
armed forces. Indonesia is divided into twenty-seven provinces. The provinces
are divided into regencies and municipalities. These units are further divided
into villages. Officials of all local government units except villages are
appointed by central government from lists of people nominated by regional
legislators. Indonesian villages elect their own village officials to provide
local government. Java lies between Sumatra (to the west), and Bali (to the
east). To the north is the Java Sea. To the south is the Indian Ocean, which
Indonesians call the Indonesian Ocean. The greatest distance from North Java to
South Java is two hundred kilometers. From East Java to West Java is over one
thousand kilometers. The island of Java has five administrative units: the
special territory of Jakarta Raya, Java Barat , Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, the
special territory of Yogjakarta, and Jawa Timur. Chains of volcanic mountains
run along the island from west to east. These mountains are apart of a fold in
the earth’s crust which extends from Southeast Asian mainland through Sumatra
and Java to the lesser Sundra Islands. Java itself has 112 peaks. The volcanic
soil is extremely fertile and this are supports a large population. Tangkuban
Prahu in West Java is a live volcanoe that attracts many tourists. A similar
mountain in the Sunda Straights, Krakatoua, is famous for its eruption in 1883.
The whole northern portion of the peak was blown away. The explosion was heard
over 700 kilometers away. The resulting sea waves caused over thirty six
thousand Indonesian deaths in the low lying of West and South Jakarta. Indonesia
is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of more than 13,600 islands. The
islands lie along the equator, and extend more than 5,000 kilometers. Many of
the islands cover only a few square kilometers but about half of New Guinea (an
area called Irian Jaya), and three fourths of Borneo (Kalimantan), also belong
to Indonesia. New Guinea and Borneo are the second and third largest islands in
the world after Greenland.
