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Post Reformasi 1998 in Indonesia


Post Reformasi 1998 in Indonesia

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1975, but there was armed resistance to this. After decades of Indonesian rule, on 30 August 1999, a provincial referendum for independence was overwhelmingly approved by the people of East Timor. Indonesia grudgingly but still astonishingly accepted the result (although army-linked militias looted capital Dili in protest), and East Timor gained its independence in 2002. One more violent secessionist movement took place in the devoutly Islamic state of Aceh at the northern tip of Sumatra. After decades of insurgency and abortive talks, the deadlock was broken by the 2004 tsunami, which killed over 200,000 people in Aceh. The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) signed a peace deal the next year, with Aceh giving up it's fight for independence in exchange for being granted special autonomy including the right to enact Syariah (Islamic) law, and to date the peace has held. In 2004 Indonesia held the first election in which the people directly elected the president and vice president. The president of Indonesia may currently serve a maximum of two consecutive five-year terms. Currently Indonesia is one of the worlds largest democracies and is going through a period of difficult reforms and re-invention following the Reformasi and the institution of a democratically elected government. In order to assist in the transformation from the years of centralised control under the Suharto regime the role of regional and provincial government has been strengthened and enhanced. The election process in Indonesia has a high participation rate and the nature and fabric of governance and administration is slowly changing across Indonesia. Change in the nation since the fall of Suharto has also been characterized by greater freedom of speech and a massive reduction in the political censorship that was a feature of Suharto's New Order era. There is more open political debate in the news media as well as in general discourse, political and social debate.

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Indonesia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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