Indonesia
This essay will be on the History in Brief of Indoneisa, the Government of Indoneisia,
the island of Java, and the Geography of Indoneisa.
In early days, the region from India to Japan, including Indonesia, was known to the
Europeans as the Indies. Chris Colombus was looking for a westward sea roots from Europe
to the Indies when he arrived in America. During 1600's dutch political control began to
spread Indonesia.
Indonesia declared it's independencein 1945 and fought the Dutch until 1949 when they
gave up their control.
At first, the Dutch allowed nationalist movement to delevope. In 1905, it had
introduced municipal councils to govern the towns and cities. By 1920, there were 32 such
councils, with little electorial franchise.
Other councils were also established. They included provicial councils in Java, and
group communities concils outside Java.
The government of Indonesia is based on a constitution written in 1945. A president
serves as the head of government. The president apionts a sheet of advisers consisting
of top military leaders and civillians.
In theory, the peoples console assembly is supposed to establish a general direction of
the government's policys.
A house of peoples Representatives is the nations parlament, 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 Consulative assembly. Te
assembly has 1,000 members. It includes the 500 members of the peoples representives. 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 potlitical organization win
most of the seats. Servicmen have no vote, so the remaining 100 are appointed by the
president on the reccomendation of the comander of the armed forces.
Indonesia is divided into twenty-seven provinces. The provinces are divided into
regioncies and municipalities. These units are further divided into villages.
Officials of all local government units exept 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.
A chain 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 attraccts manu tourists. A similar
mountain in the Sunda Straights, Krakatoua, is famous for its erruption 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
deaaths in the low lying of West and South Jakarta.
Indonesia is a country in south east 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.
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