SOCIAL-CULTURE
People of IndonesiaIndonesia has one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world, with people from about 300 ethnic groups. The largest ethnic group is the Javanese, who live mostly on the island of Java and make up about 41 percent of Indonesia's population. The second largest group is the Sundanese, who live in western Java and make up about 15 percent of the population. The Madurese, who live mostly on Madura, make up about 3 percent of Indonesia’s people.
The many other ethnic minorities in the country include the Betawi, Bantenese, Bugis, Malays, and Minangkabau. People of Chinese descent are the wealthiest ethnic group in Indonesia. Their wealth causes social tension, and they have sometimes become the targets of racial violence. The people of Indonesia speak more than 250 different languages. |
" . . . Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, or Unity in Diversity is the motto of great significance; it embraces the sincere hope of the whole nation in its struggle to become great and united within a vastly diverse society . . ."
-Dr. Soewito Santoso, Leiden University (1988)
Our Language
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Bahasa Indonesia is the official language. Indonesian nationalists created Bahasa Indonesia in the late 1920's, early in the country's struggle for independence, to provide a common tongue for Indonesia's various peoples. Bahasa Indonesia was based on the Malay language spoken in eastern Sumatra, the Riau Islands, and the Malay Peninsula. It resembles Coastal Malay, which was the common language of trade in Indonesian ports. Bahasa Indonesia became the language used in schools and universities. Children learn the language of their ethnic group at home and learn Bahasa Indonesia in school.
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Rural Life
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About half of the people of Indonesia live in a small, rural villages. Life in most of these villages called desa, is controlled by village headmen, religious preachers, and other traditional leaders. The village leaders govern by a traditional system that stresses cooperation and communal behavior. The villagers often settle disputes and solve problem by holding open discussions, called musyawarah that continue until everyone involved reaches an agreement, known as mufakat.
Life in small farm villages increasingly combines modern practices with older ways of life. For example, most villagers listen to radio, shop in nearby town, and send their children to public school. At the same time, they follow many traditional customs. For example, some villagers still build a traditional type of Indonesian house that stands on stilts about 1.8 meter (6 feet) high. Families us the space between cattle stalls or chicken coops, or to store tools and firewood. The floors and walls are made of timber or weaved bamboo. The roof are covered with clay tiles, palm thatch, or iron. Some ethnic groups build large communal houses in which as many as several hundred people may live. These groups include the Dayaks on Borneo, the Toraja on Sulawesi, the Batak on Sumatra, and some Papuan groups in Papua. In rural life, the sense of communality is much more praised than individuality. |
City Life
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City people live in houses and high-rise apartment buildings like those in big cities in North America and Europe. Most of Indonesia’s largest cities are on Java. They include Jakarta, Indonesia’s largest city by far. Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan have business districts with busy streets, elegant shopping mall, night life and towering office buildings. One of the most notable aspect is the number of shopping malls in Jakarta. A lot of millennials and office workers congregate there, with many western restaurants cafes such as Starbucks.
With all the facilities provided, Jakarta has been named the city with the worst traffic congestion in the world, as according to a new study in 2015. The second largest city in Indonesia, Surabaya has been ranked fourth among 78 international cities and regions. Drivers in Jakarta made 33.240 stop-starts annually, while drivers in Surabaya made 29.880. At the other end of the scale, drivers in Rotterdam in the Netherlands registered 6.360 stop-starts a year. The results won't surprise many commuters in the capital and Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama admitted there was more to do. In resolving this problem, Jakarta is currently building a train-based transportation system, MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), to solve the problem gradually. |