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1 1 (March 5, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveond0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con re s nal Research Se prem info rriing the ieg It ve debat sin o 1914 Updated March 5, 2024 Indonesia Overview With over 279 million citizens, Indonesia is the most populous country in Southeast Asia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, and the world's third- largest democracy (after India and the United States). It has the world's 16th-largest economy-the 7th-largest when ranked by purchasing power parity. It straddles vital sea lanes and borders the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest trade routes, as well as the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Over the past 25 years, Indonesia has become a robust democracy, holding five direct presidential elections, each considered by international observers to have been largely free and fair. In the most recent, held in February 2024, early results indicate that Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto had won and would succeed President Joko Widodo when his term ends in October. Prabowo's Vice Presidential running mate was Widodo's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. The U.S.-Indonesia relationship has broadened in recent years, with closer military and counterterrorism cooperation and a range of new educational, environmental, and energy programs initiated during the Obama Administration. Indonesia's foreign policy is guided by its historical role as a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and successive Indonesian governments have bristled at the notion of aligning too closely with the United States or others, including China. Indonesia is an active member in regional diplomatic institutions, and served as the 2022 chair of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations and the 2023 chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Some 87% of Indonesians are Muslim, with the vast majority subscribing to moderate, syncretic forms of Sunni Islam. Religious diversity is enshrined in the constitution. Some observers, however, express concern about growing political influence of conservative religious groups. Non- Sunni Muslims and other religious minorities have been targets of violence, and some conservative groups have organized mass demonstrations against non-Muslim politicians. Indonesia also has a history of violent extremism: several bombings in Jakarta and tourist center Bali targeted Westerners in the 2000s, and smaller-scale attacks have occurred periodically. Indonesia is increasingly involved in rising South China Sea tensions. Although the two nations do not dispute sovereignty over any land features, China's extensive nine-dash line claims overlap with Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the coastal area over which a state has the right to regulate economic activity. Indonesian authorities periodically confront or warn off Chinese fishing and law-enforcement vessels seen as encroaching on Indonesian waters. In 2017, Indonesia elicited a formal diplomatic protest from Beijing by renaming waters off the Natuna Islands, north of Borneo, the North Natuna Sea. More recently, Chinese Coast Guard vessels reportedly have harassed Indonesian energy exploration vessels in the South China Sea more frequently, and have accompanied fleets of Chinese fishing vessels into Indonesia's EEZ. Pohitical Background On February 14, 2024, over 200 million Indonesians voted in presidential, parliamentary, and local elections-the world's largest one-day democratic exercise-and appear to have selected Defense Minister Prabowo as president, according to historically accurate exit polling. If the results are confirmed, Prabowo would become president in October. Prabowo, the son-in-law of the country's former authoritarian president Suharto, is a former general who was removed from the military in 1998 for allegedly torturing political activists, and who was implicated in 1999 violence in Timor-Leste. A scion of a wealthy Indonesian family, Prabowo campaigned on promises to continue the economic development policies of President Widodo, who remains popular. i-resiaent w iaoao, universally Known Dy ms mckname Jokowi, tacitly supported Prabowo's campaign, and many analysts expect the new government to continue Widodo's populist focus on economic development. One of Widodo's signature initiatives is a plan to move Indonesia's capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Widodo has enacted several economic reform packages aimed at streamlining bureaucratic processes to boost foreign and domestic investment. Poverty and uneven economic development remain major issues.

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