According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Indonesia had a population of about 220 million people and a GDP of $566 billion. The economy was largely based on services, manufacturing, and agriculture with the services industry being the largest contributor to the country’s economic activity. Unemployment rates were relatively low at around 7%, while poverty levels remained relatively high with an estimated 17% of the population living below the poverty line.
Foreign relations in 2005 were focused on improving ties with other Asian nations as well as strengthening economic relations with Europe and North America. Indonesia also sought to improve its relationship with its neighbors Malaysia and Singapore through increased trade and diplomatic cooperation. In addition, Indonesia maintained strong political ties with its regional allies such as Australia and New Zealand through their mutual defense treaties.
Politically, Indonesia was a presidential republic during this time period with executive power vested in the President who was elected by Parliament every five years. The President had authority over foreign policy decisions and could veto any legislation passed by Parliament. Furthermore, there were three branches of government: Executive (President), Legislative (Parliament) and Judicial (Supreme Court). These branches worked together to ensure that laws were properly enforced throughout the country.
Yearbook 2005
Indonesia. According to countryaah, Jakarta is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Indonesia. Indonesia went into a state of shock in 2005. The flood wave the days before the New Year had devastated large parts of the coastal area of Aceh province in northern Sumatra, at least 130,000 people had died and half a million were homeless. The conflict between the army and the separatist guerrilla Movement for a Free Aceh (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) continued, however, but in February Finland’s former President Martti Ahtisaari succeeded in gathering representatives of the government and the guerrilla for peace talks in Helsinki. The talks went on in the spring, and in July the parties agreed to cancel the conflict after GAM gave up the claim for independence for Aceh. In August, a peace agreement was signed under which, until the end of the year, the state withdrew all non-Acesan soldiers and police, and GAM withdrew the weapons and disbanded the guerrillas. Local political parties should be formed and the oil and gas-rich province guaranteed 70% of the income from their natural resources. General amnesty was announced and the government promised to release all political prisoners in the province. The EU and five countries of the Southeast Asian cooperation organization ASEAN established a civilian peacekeeping force, Aceh Monitoring Mission. The settlement also meant that the government decided to station a new ambassador to Sweden. That post had been vacant for over a year in protest of the Swedish authorities not intervening against the GAM management, which was active in a Stockholm suburb.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym IN stands for the country of Indonesia and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
The material damage after the Aceh tsunami cost about SEK 35 billion, while the UN valued the damage to the environment to more than SEK 5 billion.
In October, the government abolished the subsidies on fuel, which meant that the gasoline price rose immediately by 87.5% and the price of kerosene increased by close to 300%. To reduce the effect of the price increases, the government gave about 15 million poor households just under SEK 250 each in compensation. Fuel subsidies had amounted to approximately SEK 60 billion annually and devoured close to one-third of the state budget, significantly more than was spent on health care or education. The fuel price increases meant that the inflation rate rose to 12.25%; the highest figure in four years. However, the government was assured that this was only a temporary effect.
On October 1, the tourist island of Bali was exposed to new terrorist attacks. Three suicide bombers hit popular restaurants and took 19 people to death. The suspicions were directed at the terrorist network Jemaa Islamiyya (JI), which was also singled out for the attacks in Bali in 2002. JI’s supposed leader Abu Bakar Baasyir was sentenced in March to 30 months in prison for aiding the 2002 attacks, a punishment that the US and Australia criticized for being unreasonably mild. Later, the sentence was also reduced by four months. In September, a man was sentenced to death for participating in an attack on the Australian Embassy in 2004, when eleven people were killed.
In April, a state campaign against corruption led to Aceh’s governor being sentenced to ten years in prison and high fines for embezzlement in connection with a helicopter purchase. In the town of Padang on Sumatra, 27 former members of the city council were sentenced to each four years in prison for misappropriation of public funds. The corruption-accused army promised to shut down all business activities within two years.
Climate
Always humid tropical climate. The precipitation depends on the seasonal change of the monsoon winds. They decrease from the west (up to 6000 mm) to the east (800 mm). The average temperature is around 27ºC all year round. Cooler in the higher areas; In the high mountains in Irian Jaya, snowfall is even possible.
