The Government of the Republic of Indonesia

Indonesia is a democratic country that applies a presidential system and Pancasila is the soul of
the Indonesian democracy. Pancasila is the philosophic fundamentals of the state. Pancasila
consists of five principles that are interrelated and inseparable, namely:

State Philosophy 

1. The belief in one God

2. A just and civilized humanism
3. Unity of Indonesia
4. Democratic citizenship lead by wise guidance born of representative consultation
5. Social justice for all the people of Indonesia 

Provinces

Indonesia has 34 provinces (including 2 Special Territories of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and
Yogyakarta) and one Special Capital Region of Jakarta (DKI). East Timor was once part of
Indonesia, but then through a referendum in 1999, East Timor became the Democratic Republic
of Timor Leste. 

Demography

The population of Indonesia can be divided into two major groups: in the western region most of
the people are from the Malay ethnicity while in the eastern region there are the Papuans
originating from the Melanesian Islands. Indonesia also recognizes specific ethnic groups that
come from a certain province/area and have specific language for example the Javanese from
Central or East Java, the Sundanese from West Java or the Batak ethnicity from North Sumatra.

In addition, there are also minority ethnicities derived from Chinese, Indian and Arabic
descendents. These people travelled as merchants through trade exchange since the 8th century
BC and migrated to Indonesia. Approximately 3% of the population is from Chinese ethnicity,
although the exact percentage is not known as the last ethnicity census was held in the 1930s.

Islam is the major religion of 85.2% of the population, designating Indonesia as the largest
Moslem country in the world. The remaining population consists of Protestants (8.9%); Catholics
(3%); Hindus (1.8%); Buddhists (0.8%) and other religion (0.3%).

Politics

The President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo The Vice President of Indonesia, Ma’ruf Amin

As in other democratic countries, Indonesia applies the Trias Politica that recognizes the
separation of the legislative, executive and judicial bodies. The executive institution is
centralized under the president, vice president, and the cabinet of ministers. The cabinet is a
presidential cabinet in which the ministers report to the president and do not represent the
political parties.

The legislative authority is under the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) that consists of two
bodies namely the Parliament composing of members of political parties and the Regional
Representative Council (DPD) composing of representatives from each province in Indonesia.
Each province is represented by 4 delegates that are elected by the people in the respective
region.

The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) is the highest state institution. Upon the
Amendment of the 1945 Constitution, the membership of the MPR starting the period of 1999-
2004, was amended to include not only the members of the parliament (DPR) but also the
members of the DPD. Formerly the MPR consisted of the parliament members and group
representatives. Currently, the MPR has 550 members from the parliament and 128 members
from the Regional Representative Council (DPD). The parliament members and the DPD
members are elected every five years. Since 2004, the MPR has become a bi-chamber parliament
with the DPD as second chamber.

The judicial institution -since the reform era and upon the amendment of the 1945 Constitution-
is administered by the Supreme Court including the administration of the judges. 

Economy

Indonesia has abundant natural resources outside Java including crude oil, natural gas, tin,
copper and gold. Despite being the second largest exporter of natural gas, Indonesia recently has
become a net importer of crude oil. The agriculture products of Indonesia include rice, tea,
coffee, spices and rubber. The major trade partners of Indonesia are Japan, the United States of
America and neighboring countries namely Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. In the 1990’s,
Indonesia’s economy experienced a set-back as a consequence of the economy crisis that hit
most Asian countries. However, the economy is now relatively stable.

http://www.indonesia.cz/the-government-of-the-republic-of-indonesia/