Year-end Special Edition<\/p>\n
Three elections made 2004 the year of elections here -- no doubt
\nabout that. The legislative election on April 5 saw nearly 150
\nmillion Indonesians choose 550 members of the House of
\nRepresentatives and 128 members of the newly established Regional
\nRepresentatives Council.<\/p>\n
Then there were two rounds of direct presidential elections on
\nJuly 5 and Sept. 20, the first ever in the country's history. And
\nmost of all, those elections took place in a relatively peaceful
\nmanner.<\/p>\n
The successful elections have allowed Indonesia to claim
\nitself the third largest democracy in the world after India and
\nthe United States.<\/p>\n
But democracy does not necessarily bring security and welfare
\nto the people.<\/p>\n
Security remained the main agenda in 2004, as it has in other
\nyears since Soeharto stepped down in 1998. Terror attacks
\ncontinued, with the latest targeting the Australian Embassy in
\nSeptember. Sporadic sectarian violence continued to plague
\nCentral Sulawesi, although it has not erupted into the sort of
\nmassive and prolonged clashes between Muslims and Christians that
\nleft thousands of people killed between 1999 and 2001 there.<\/p>\n
Separatist movements and the government's countermoves in Aceh
\nand Papua have also meant peace continues to elude people in both
\nof those provinces. The government downgraded martial law in Aceh
\ninto a state of civil emergency, but on the ground, armed
\nconflict has gone on unabated. Thousands are still stranded in
\nrefugee camps in Aceh.<\/p>\n
This suffering was compounded on Sunday, when the third most
\npowerful earthquake in the recorded history of the world (8.9 on
\nthe Richter Scale), followed by massive tidal waves, destroyed
\nand inundated many coastal areas of Aceh, killing thousands,
\nalthough the death toll is expected to rise dramatically in the
\ncoming days.<\/p>\n
Disasters and calamities, though, are not the monopoly of the
\ncountry's westernmost province. Earthquakes have devastated many
\nother parts of the country, the two latest being in Alor, East
\nNusa Tenggara, and Nabire, Papua.<\/p>\n
In addition to those natural disasters, the nation still saw
\nplenty of other accidents, killing dozens of people on the roads,
\nrails and in the air.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, there has been little bad news about flooding in
\nJakarta this rainy season, which has become an annual catastrophe
\nfor those living in this capital city. In the absence of major
\nflooding so far, the poor continued to suffer as the Jakarta
\nadministration upped measures to evict them from slum areas.<\/p>\n
Unemployment also remains high, with new job seekers flooding
\nthe job market, at a rate much higher than the growth of job
\nopenings.<\/p>\n
This, despite a rosy economic picture on most other fronts:
\ndecent economic growth of over 4 percent, low inflation, low
\ninterest rates and a vibrant stock market. One major blow,
\nhowever, has been the weakening rupiah, which defied the trend of
\nother regional currencies. Those have strengthened against the
\nU.S. dollar.<\/p>\n
In this special year-end edition, we are presenting our
\nanalysis of various events in the country over the year 2004 with
\nexpert views on what the year 2005 will look like.<\/p>\n
It is our hope that the economy will continue to perform and
\ndemocracy will continue to blossom next year.<\/p>\n
Year-end schedule:<\/p>\n
Monday Dec. 27 : National and City
\nTuesday Dec. 28 : Business and World
\nWednesday Dec. 29: Features and Sports
\nThursday Dec. 30 : Outlook 2004
\nFriday Dec. 31 : Outlook 2004<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/year-end-special-edition-1447899208",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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