Essay/Term paper: Indonesia

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Geography

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.