The second front is demographic. With a relatively young population of more than 275 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s most populous nation (and the world’s fourth most populous) as well as Asean’s largest economy. What sustains the geographical integrity of Indonesia is its eclectic culture. More than 300 ethnic groups cooperate and compete to establish and renew the Idea of Indonesia, which ranges culturally from Bali, where Hinduism thrives, to Aceh, whose Islamic legacy has earned it the distinction of being called the Porch of Mecca. In between Bali and Aceh, the world’s largest Muslim nation is guided by the philosophy of Pancasila, a constitutional reality that precludes its transformation into a confessional state. This is no mean achievement.
Indonesia’s transition, from holding the rotating presidency of the Group of 20, a cooperation forum of 20 of the world’s major economies, last year to chairing Asean this year highlights its rising international profile as an Asian power. That profile should be good for Southeast Asia’s prospects as a whole.
Indonesia clearly has “made it” on several fronts. The first front is geographical. Indonesia’s coherence as a nation state since its independence in 1945 is remarkable given that the country, the largest archipelago on earth, comprises more than 17,000 islands that stretch more than 5,000 km from East to West and 1,700 km from North to South along the Equator. Spread over five million square km, Southeast Asia’s largest nation consists of 84% water and 16% land. Five main islands — Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and Papua — contribute to a maritime geography contoured by an 81,000 km coastline. That is quite a front.
