Formerly the Dutch East Indies, Indonesia is an archipelago country with more than 300 ethnic groups. Socially, Indonesia has a high dependency ratio at 49.2%, which means that only 50.8% of the population engages in active production. Civil societies and movements highly characterize the social platform of Indonesia especially after the fall of Suharto. Both Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have had a lot of saying in terms of influencing rules and regulations governing Indonesians. It is also important to note that since 1998, the pro-democratic movements started provided good platform allowing women to fight for gender equality. In 2013, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of Indonesia was at 0.494 making it to occupy the 106th position out of the 148 countries. The number of women organizations in Indonesia continue to champion for discrimination against women. The high levels of patriarchies have since reduced significantly owing to the many legislations passed on violence against women.
Since the advent of fighting for women equality, participation of women in various national activities increased to 18.2% in the past two years. Illiteracy levels have gone down thereby allowing more women to be educated. Owing to high gender inequality in the past, Indonesian’ labor force was comprised of mostly men (Eldis, 2019). Nonetheless, women make up the highest percentage of self-employed. Due to such social factors, a large portion of Indonesian laws and legislations revolve around improving gender equality. Nonetheless, the implementation of these laws and legislations to enhance gender equality experience challenges especially considering the fact that there are secular laws and also the Islamic principles that consider patriarchal systems in families (Santandertrade, 2019). Conflicting in such laws and principles in the past have resulted into inability to achieve gender equality within the nation.
Economic Factors of Indonesia
Economically, Indonesia is the largest in Southeast Asia despite the slow growth rate in the past. In the past, Indonesia recorded more than $2 trillion as GDP. The main aspects contributing towards such growth include agriculture and industries. While agriculture employs 32% of the employable population, industry and service industries take 21% and 47% respectively. The unemployment rate has remained above 5% in the past. Indonesia mainly trades with China, US, Japan, and India amongst others. The values of exports are greater than imports. In fact, Indonesia has experienced export boom responsible for its current economic situations. Considering the previous trends, it is expected that Indonesia will experience increasing GDP growth. Having gone through the global crisis and debt crisis, Indonesia’s resilience is likely to make the company go through future challenges.
Notably, Indonesia is unable to reach its targets economically due to a number of problems. The problems include lack of sufficient infrastructure, poverty, corruption, unemployment, and unequal resource distribution. However, since the election of President Joko Widodo, there are a lot of expectations in terms of economic transformation of Indonesia. Other than developing the maritime resources, the president had promised to engage in more infrastructural developments especially with reference to power generation. By 2020, it is expected that citizens will experience low fuel prices due to government subsidies. There is likely to be more economic integration within the country. Apart from the opportunity of achieving stable economic growth, Indonesia expects to enhance its information technology for innovation, which will increase GDP. Promotion of tourism as part of service industry is also likely to impact positively on the economy.
Political Factors in Indonesia
In terms of politics, Indonesia is a presidential republic with Jarkata as the capital city. It is a democratic nation. For purposes of governance, Indonesia has 31 provinces, autonomous province, national capital district, and a special region. Regencies and municipalities became key administrative units after the decentralization implemented in 2001. These regencies and municipalities ensure that government services reach all the citizens. Since its independence in 1945, Indonesia has continued to develop and implement rules and legislations that would ensure good governance; hence, explaining the reasons behind positive economic growth. The independence of 1945 resulted into the drafting of a constitution, which was annulled by the 1949 and 1950 constitutions only to be restored back in 1959. The country has also affected a number of amendments including the need to have People’s Consultative Assembly calling for more than 66.7% of the members to form a quorum capable of making decisions.
Indonesia derives its rule of law from civil law system anchored on Roman-Dutch model. Such a model also derives a number of applications from the customary law. Apart from not submitting to any of the ICJ jurisdiction declarations, Indonesia is also a non-party state subscribing to the doctrines of ICJ. Indonesia only recognizes citizenship by descent and not by birth like other nations. There are three main arms of government, namely, executive, judiciary, and legislative. The democratic vibrancy continues to shape the political structures in Indonesia both locally and across the globe. According to World Bank, Indonesia is at position 124 out of 180 in respect to freedom of press, which could not be experienced in the past. In this case, Indonesia has positively grown over the years politically.
Works Cited
- CIA (2019). The World Factbook: Indonesia. Retrieved on 29 Jan. 2019 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id.html
- Eldis (2019). Empowerment of women and girls. Retrieved on 29 Jan. 2019 from http://interactions.eldis.org/unpaid-care-work/country-profiles/indonesia/social-economic-and-political-context-indonesia
- Santandertrade (2019). Indonesia: Economic and political outline. Received on 29 Jan. 2019 from https://en.portal.santandertrade.com/analyse-markets/indonesia/economic-political-outline
