Buehler, Michael. 2010. Countries at the Crossroads: Indonesia. (Washington D.C.: Freedom House), pp. 273-96. (original) (raw)

Buehler, Michael. 2010. Countries at the Crossroads: Indonesia. (Washington D.C.: Freedom House), pp. 273-96.

Indonesia is both the world’s largest Muslim-majority country and one of its most ethnically diverse. Home to approximately 230 million people, of whom more than 85 percent follow Islam, there are almost as many Muslims living in Indonesia as in the entire Arabic-speaking world. The Sunni branch of Islam predominates, while approximately one million Indonesians adhere to the Shia variant. A signifi cant number of Sufi communities also exist in the archipelago state. Indonesia is also the world’s third largest democracy, after India and the United States. President Suharto’s New Order regime, one of the most repressive dictatorships in Southeast Asia, collapsed in May 1998 after controlling Indonesian politics for more than 30 years. Since Suharto’s downfall, the most dramatic reform initiative has been the introduction of an extensive regulatory framework governing the conduct of executive and legislative elections. Based on the new system, three national legislative and presidential elections, as well as balloting in several hundred localities, have occurred throughout the last decade. Overall, elections in Indonesia are considered free and fair. The quality of democracy remains low, however.