The People
There has been such an influx of peoples from China, Arabia, Polynesia, Southeast Asia, Indochina, and Europe that Indonesia is an ethnological gold mine, the variety of its human geography--336 ethnic groups--without parallel on earth. Shades of skin vary from yellow to coal black. Welded together by a unifying lingua franca and intermarrying freely, Indonesians represent all the Asian cultures, races, and religions. They worship Allah, Buddha, Shiva, and Jehovah--in some places an amalgam of all four. Living in a collection of local archipelagic nations, many Indonesians identify themselves in local terms: Orang Toraja, Orang Sawu, Orang Mentawai. This sense of local identity with one's tribe and clan has fostered an attitude of tolerance toward other cultures summed up in the Indonesian expression 'lain desa, lain adat' or 'other villages, other customs.'
Cultural Differences
Due to the archipelago's size and terrain, many of Indonesia's ethnic pockets have remained extremely isolated. You can find ways of life separated by some 5,000 years--a journey through time. People live in the Neolithic, Bronze, Middle, and Nuclear ages. Some Indonesians wear rings and rat ribs in their noses, others read the Asian Wall Street Journal and mimic Western rap. If the races have mingled at all, it's been near the sea. Many mountain tribes were scattered into the hills by Muslim, Christian, or Hindu-Buddhist conquerors who moved into the richer valleys and prime coastal areas. Sumatra's elusive Kubu and Mamak tribes, the Penan of Kalimantan, the Alfuro of Maluku, and the Dani of Irian Jaya are descendants of the so-called Austronesian groups who drifted into the archipelago between 8000 and 7000 B.C. These tribes are considered 'uncivilized' by present-day coastal inhabitants. A theme in much Indonesian folklore and wayang is the constant struggle between the dark-complexioned highlanders and the lighter-complexioned lowlanders, or between the noble princes and the black giants of the jungles and mountains. Indonesians can be quite color-conscious; many are outright racists. Village women and little girls smear white powder on their faces to 'beautify' themselves; Indonesian women take all possible precautions against exposing their skin to the sun. It's believed that the darker the skin, the more primitive the person, the lower his or her class. The government takes the position that the 'backward' tribal peoples must be brought into the mainstream of modern Indonesian life. In 1990, the term used to describe tribes was changed from suku terasing (isolated tribes) to suku yang sedang dibina (tribes not yet developed). The government counts around 1.2 million people in this category, 50% of them on Irian Jaya.
Population
Indonesia has the fourth-largest population in the world--some 180 million--which equals the population of all other Southeast Asian nations combined. Better health care, decreasing infant mortality, and longer life expectancy keep more people alive. The population of Java, about the size of New York state and comprising only seven percent of Indonesia's total land area, has tripled this century, reaching 110 million. That's well over a third of the population of the U.S., and 60% of Indonesia's total. In spite of the government's best efforts, the Asian Institute of Management projects that by the year 2020 the country's population will be 253.7 million, 52% comprising a huge middle class living in urban areas. Over the next 30 years Jakarta will double in size, from 10 million to 20 million people. Indonesia has probably the world's largest collection of cities with populations over 200,000--26 at last count. Around 20% of Indonesia's population now lives in urban areas.
Dua Cukup
When Suharto launched his birth control program in 1974, it was risky business. Though the Muslim clergy were at first against it and the Nationalists condemned it, the president's unflagging commitment to family planning was the key to the program's success. In the early days the program focused on birth spacing; now more long-term, permanent methods--sterilizations and implants--are preferred. Coercion and deception are often employed on unwilling recruits. With a mixture of Madison Avenue hoopla, Islamic teaching, and the motto 'dua cukup' ('two is enough'), Indonesia's family planning campaign is now well entrenched. A whole battery of government, military, and community agencies cooperate in its implementation. A recent survey indicated that 94.5% of Indonesian women from 20 provinces were familiar with birth control. Songs extolling the virtues of a 'small, happy, and prosperous family' are played for motorists stopped at traffic lights; if you practice birth control you earn discounts of 5-30% at cinemas, doctors' offices, pharmacists, gas stations, and grocery stores. The largest condom factory in Southeast Asia, producing 130 million untrustworthy condoms a year, is in Banjaran, West Java. Between 1974 and 1991, fertility declined from an average of 5.6 to three births per woman and the number of couples using contraceptives increased from less than 10% to more than 45%. The government hopes that by the year 2005 the birthrate will drop to 2.1, the replacement level at which the population ceases to grow.
Transmigrasi
The country's controversial transmigrasi policy has also failed to reduce Indonesia's overcrowded urban populations. The idea of the scheme is to move people from the overcrowded inner islands of Bali, Lombok, and Java (over 800 people per square km) to sparsely populated islands like Sumatra (about 182 per square km), Kalimantan (38 per square km), and Irian Jaya (8.5 per square km). Since 1969 more than two million people have been relocated. Critics charge the scheme amounts to cultural genocide--the biggest colonization program in history. Financed and granted technical support by international development agencies, these migrations are really state-sponsored invasions by surplus populations. Transmigration is expensive (about $9000 per family), and since 1978 the World Bank has poured $300 million into the program. Living conditions in the transplanted communities are supposed to be better, but in many cases disastrous ecological deterioration has followed the settlers' arrival. Because the sites are poorly chosen, transmigrants are lucky to get three years of harvests before the land becomes infertile. An estimated 3.5 million hectares of tropical forests have been destroyed to build transmigrasi sites. From the government's point of view all its people belong to one nation, so transmigration is not colonization but national integration. Colonies of transmigrants also serve as deterrents for regional secessionist movements. The government claims locals don't mind transmigrants because they bring with them money, skills, and agricultural techniques, creating thousands of job opportunities and clients for local businesses.
The Indonesian Family
Ever since nomadic Malay hunter-gatherers began cultivating rice in the fertile ashes of burned forests some 4,500 years ago, rice has been at the very center of Indonesian culture. The structure and pressure of this intensive cultivation has given rise to very close-knit, cooperative families, especially on the island that supports the bulk of the population--Java. The heart and soul of Indonesia is the village. About 80% of the people still live in 60,000 agricultural communities throughout the archipelago. The village council of elders is the foundation of Indonesian democracy, and village and family loyalties come before all others. Even Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, has all the habits and manners of a village. The extended family is a sophisticated structure that makes alliances and friendships, keeps people happy, and offers a superbly supportive environment for children and elders. A family could include grandparents, grandchildren, father's and mother's relatives, nieces, nephews, and cousins, all living under the same roof. An adult child working outside the home turns over wages to the family, submits to opening of personal mail, is expected to help in the cost of sending younger siblings to school, and must contribute to the expenses of supporting mature members of the family. Most Indonesians have never slept in a room where they couldn't hear someone else breathing. The nation as a whole is looked upon as a family. Both the president and schoolmasters are referred to as bapak or pak (father). A schoolmistress or warung proprietor is addressed as ibu (mother). Don't be surprised if an Indonesian friend refers to scores of peers and acquaintances as 'brothers' and 'sisters.' Children must forever honor and respect their parents. Newspapers annually publish photos of Pak Harto kneeling reverently before his mother-in-law during Lebaran.
Adat
Meaning indigenous customary law, this is the word Indonesians utter when you ask about a custom with obscure origins. They just say, 'it's adat.' The closest Western equivalent to adat is common law. This unwritten, unspoken traditional village law governs the actions and behavior of every person in every village and city kampung in Indonesia. Evolving from a distant time when villages were largely collectivist and self-governing, the dictates and taboos of adat dictate what foods are eaten and when, ceremonies for the ill or dead, ownership of land and irrigation systems, architecture of family houses and granaries, criminal and civil law covering theft and inheritance, relations between siblings, marriage, the treatment of guests--everything, the total way of life. Adat is particularly useful in times of economic or political instability. Adat helps to ensure peace between the various religious communities--all have adat in common. Although rooted in religion, adat is not a religion. Indonesians say, 'religion comes in from the sea, but customs come down from the mountains.' Islam was in many instances radically modified to fit local adat. Rules and behavior from other imported religions have also become a part of adat. Most of the more elaborate and cultic manifestations of adat have been forgotten; it now covers only the basic necessities and social obligations of life. Though the original meaning of many acts and gestures may be lost, they are rigorously performed without question. Adat is not in the law books, it's in the genes. Some say adat strangles the people because it encourages superstition instead of reasoning, that it stifles progress because all actions are based on precedent. Change from within Indonesian society is very slow.
The Chinese
The Chinese are Indonesia's most important ethnic minority and largest alien group. Chinese Buddhist pilgrims visited Java and Sumatra on their way to and from monasteries in India as early as the 5th century. Chinese traders began arriving in the 10th century, setting up culturally advanced trading communities on Java's north coast. Chinese Muslims from Yunnan played a role in converting Java to Islam in the 15th century. In the 18th century the VOC allowed large numbers of Chinese to immigrate as an intermediary class. The Chinese eventually worked their way into the bureaucratic and merchant classes, becoming tax collectors, moneylenders, pawnshop owners, farmers, and traders in salt and opium. Though economically powerful and able to enjoy many privileges in Dutch society, they were forbidden to own land and were excluded from the political process--a situation that exists to this day. In the 20th century, nationalist fighters remember with bitterness the indifference or opposition with which most Chinese viewed the revolutionary struggle. This very class of native Indonesians today forms the Old Guard of the civil bureaucracy and officer corps. The Chinese are also resented for their religion, wealth, and business skills, despite the fact wealthy Chinese businessmen (cukong) work closely with high-placed Indonesians--even the president himself--advising and financing them, giving them a cut of the profits. Although the Chinese comprise only about two percent of the total population, they control about 75% of the country's private domestic capital. They succeed in all fields: as professionals, bankers, tour guides, traders, shopkeepers, plantation overseers, machine shop workers, and mechanics. Unlike the Philippines or Thailand, where the Chinese have been integrated fully into society, the Chinese in Indonesia are resented and envied. They have traditionally been ostracized from the mainstream of Indonesian society, with periodic purges perpetrated against them. In an uprising in Batavia in 1740 thousands of Chinese were slaughtered. After the 1965-66 coup as many as 200,000 lost their lives. Indonesia repudiated a dual-citizenship treaty between Indonesia and China in 1969, leaving 80,000 Chinese citizens stateless. In 1980, there were widespread anti-Chinese riots in Central Java. Much of the present resentment is due to the rapid growth of Chinese business groups following the financial market liberalizations and corporate scandals of the late 1980s. Anti-Chinese sentiments are exacerbated by Indonesian Chinese investment in China, rather than in Indonesia. Other Indonesians suspect the Chinese are ultimately loyal to Beijing, not Jakarta. In 1959, the government prevented Chinese from settling in rural areas, resulting in a mass exodus to the cities, where the majority live today. Chinese are not allowed to run their own schools, publish their own newspapers, import Chinese-language publications, or form political parties. Chinese characters are prohibited, by government decree, from all of Indonesia's Chinatowns. The authorities have even outlawed the physical fitness exercise tai chi, which employs a few Mandarin words and soothing music. If your father is Chinese, you're Chinese until you die; Indonesia and Korea are the only countries in Asia that base nationality entirely on paternal lineage. Enrollment of Chinese in state tertiary institutes is limited to two percent; in private institutions, 30%. Chinese may not hold dual citizenship and in the armed forces may not rise above the rank of colonel. They must also take on Indonesian surnames; often they choose high-class priyayi Muslim names, which enrages the Javanese.
Peranakan And Totok
Peranaken refers to people of non-Indonesian ethnic origin who were born in Indonesia, usually Chinese. These Chinese-Indonesians have lived in Indonesia for generations and have become thoroughly Indonesianized. Peranakan have intermarried with Indonesians and are usually completely illiterate in Chinese languages. This group has evolved its own customs, adat, dialect, batik, and cuisine, adapted from local Malay culture. Peranakan have lost more of their Chineseness than most of the world's 30 million or so overseas Chinese. They're looser and less inhibited than Singaporean or Taiwanese Chinese, for example. Totok, on the other hand, is a colonial term refering to Indonesia's unacculturated immigrant Chinese, brought in by the Dutch to work as coolies in the mines of West Kalimantan and on the plantations of North Sumatra. Today, totok are concentrated in business districts like Jakarta's Kota, in typical shophouse dwellings like those found in southeast China. Totok are the exception in Indonesia.