Page 66 - Demo

Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary Indonesia49largest Muslim majority in the world, beside, other significantreligious communities such as the Christians, Balinese Hindus,Buddhists and followers of traditional beliefs. Besides the varietyof religious communities, also the variety of ethnics in Indonesiaare really very complex, although since the historic %u201cSumpahPemuda of1928%u201d the whole community had reached anagreement to form a nation and would living together in agreat nation-state, The Greater Indonesia (Indonesia Raya). Afterindependence, people aware of the variety of Indonesian nation,but they proud on their symbol of unity based on the principletaken from the Sanskrit word, the %u201dBhinneka Tunggal Ika%u201d (unity in diversity).The internal stability of Indonesia during the three decadesof the former President Suharto%u2019s New Order Governmentfocused on the economic development with its semi militarystyle of government and tend to be repressive. The monetarycrisis in 1977 with the decline of the Rupiah value against USdollar causes a great impact to the social and political stability.The local strain in various provinces made the position of thegovernment uncertain and collapse, leaving many unsolvedcomplicated problems inherited to the new government. Theeconomic crisis in Indonesia was then followed by the strive ofbig changes by the reformist forces who were not patient to seeIndonesia become a more democratic country with highlyrespect to the law and human rights, freedom of media andexpression, and freedom of association. We admit the largechanges in Indonesian politics, but those changes still couldnot be able to recover the economy as before the crisis in 1977.Economic crisis and political changes had immediateguidance us to new significant hopes. But as long as there is no