Indonesi A High Rate Of Political Risk

Regardless of which ideology a state adopts, a common issue which arises is the protection of religious liberty of the people of the state. Religious liberty simply means the freedom of citizens to practice their chosen religion without fear, harassment, or suppression either by virtue of state policy or as a result of religious intolerance by fellow citizens or groups. Religious intolerance is a constant problem in most countries of the world today as adherents of various religious beliefs attempt to suppress adherents of other religious under the misguided belief of the superiority of their religious belief over others. Such religious ‘Nazism’ based on misguided claims to superiority of particular religions have wreaked havoc in places such as the Balkans where genocide was committed on religious basis and even the Hindu-Islamic strife in India and Myanmar have deep rooted religious colorations arising from religious intolerance by adherents of different religious beliefs.

In the generally fair conditions in the United States, many Americans may be unaware that events similar to Christianity’s counter-reformation are more of a current reality with other religions in other countries. As of February 2012, an Indonesian man, Alexander Aan, is serving 5 years in prison for a single Facebook post: “God doesn’t exist.” An event like this should certainly cause us to question our thoughts on religion and how much good it actually does. While some studies show that “religious people… donate more money to charities including non-religious charities,” specific religious groups have targeted and tortured others to enforce conversions to their religion. Prejudice against LGBTQ+ groups is widespread throughout religious groups as they claim their deities are against it. However, these are just a couple of examples showing just how unethical religions can appear to be. But these are only the connotations of religion, morality, and atheism. The true definition of religion is “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods.” Note that morality has the separate definition of “beliefs about what is right and wrong behavior” and the counterpart of religion is atheism, or the lack of the “belief in the existence of a deity or deities.” These definitions are crucial to objectively viewing each argument when answering whether religion’s effects on different culture’s morals are positive or negative.

Indonesia complained of their lack of autonomy In regions such as Maluku or other areas of Eastern Indonesia, “a low capacity for generating local revenue restricted the ability to adapt projects and development to local conditions” (Bertrand, 198).). The scanty amounts of funds were unable to support the poor and other problems. Bertrand states, “Faced with the New Order regime introduced mild reforms that were designed to address some technical issues while avoiding political decentralization” (Bertrand, 198). In 1995 the Minister of Home Affairs selected 26 districts were used to evaluate the measures designed to increase autonomy. They noticed an increase in Indonesia budget, but they still failed to support the poor, which resulted in

Indonesia has been independent for just over half a century. In this short time the country has had to adjust to the demands of the modern world.

Radical Pathways calls for intensified cooperation across the disciples to generate the kind of integrated knowledge that is needed to counter the increasingly complex challenge of violent Muslim radicalization in Indonesia and beyond (Ramakrishna 14).

Indonesia has a massive population of 249.9 million people. Indonesia’s human rights are mostly abused because the government hasn’t done enough to help protect those rights. Indonesia has the largest economy in south East Asia and is one of the emerging market economies. Some people in Indonesia are wealthy but the majority of people in Indonesia are poor.

World Justice Project (2015) then raised three contributing factors for the shortcoming of law in Indonesia, namely ‘defective investigations, an ineffective correctional system, and violations to due process of law’. The World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 stated that the most troublesome factors for conducting business in Indonesia were corruption and inefficiency in the bureaucracy of Indonesia.

Indonesia is the largest economy in South-East Asia; it has progressed into a decentralized electoral democracy and has managed to reduce its overall poverty from 17 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2014. However, despite their steady economy and major improvements, nearly 40 percent of Indonesia lives just above the poverty line. Additionally, Indonesian public services and health standards fall behind other middle-income countries; these facts combined with their high rates of maternal mortality, child malnutrition, and insufficient access to education place Indonesia in the developing or Third World realm. Indonesia’s history, geographic position, abundance of natural resources, wars and conquest, as well as trade has fundamentally shaped the economic and political structure. Furthermore, leadership influence, intervening forces, and its colonial masters have also played a large role in constructing the systems of this developing country.

Throughout history, there are examples of religion both supporting and undermining political authority and the social elites of the time. Some countries even go through a cycle of religion first supporting and then undermining authority. Religion can support the birth of the civilization, becoming the foundation of its social and sometimes legal codes. But, at the end of a civilization, or as the civilization becomes modernized, religion can cause corruption and a potential “social schism”. However, if one takes all examples into account, it shows that more often than not, religion is used as a tool by and for the elites of a civilization to hold more power and to corrupt society.

For Muslims, the issue of conversion out of Islam or apostasy raises significant religious and political considerations. The adoption of Islam as the religion of the Federation under Article 3 and the compulsory subjection of Muslims to the Syariah in a number of matters are reasons why the conversion of a Muslim out of Islam arouses revulsion and anger among the Malays or Muslim citizens. The controversy regarding the issue of apostasy, specifically in relation to the application the constitutional provisions for the freedom of religion to Muslims, remains unresolved. However, recently, there were some interesting decisions in both civil and Syariah courts regarding the issue of apostasy.

Ever since Indonesia has opened its economy to global forces in the mid-1980’s, the country has experienced the growth of trade and investment and the increased participation of transnational corporations in the economy. Reforming the economy has been necessary so that Indonesia can keep pace with other economies in the South-East Asian region and avoid relying too heavily on commodity exports, whose value on global markets tends to be volatile.

RELATION(S) OF FIVE MAJOR FACTORS IN INFLUENCING POLITICAL SYSTEM AND TO THE PEOPLE IN INDONESIA

There has also been a slow decline of Indonesia’s economy and this has been going on since the past decade. I believe that if Indonesia keeps building these megachurches the citizens of the country are going to see how this is going to affect them financially. The most interesting thing i found from listening to the broadcast Megachurch Symbolizes Indonesia 's Tolerance was the fact and idea of religious tolerance that the Megachurch represented. What I also thought very interesting was that it directed its attention towards the various different aspects of beliefs and also their different interactions that it possessed. For the most part the Muslims and the Christians lived together peacefully, but the Muslims opposed the Christians to talk to their fellow Muslims about conversion.

The macroeconomic conditions of Indonesia are moderately challenging. The World Bank (2012) categories Indonesia as a lower middle income country. The CIA World Factbook (2012) notes that the country "still struggles with poverty and unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, corruption, a complex regulatory environment and unequal resource distribution among regions."

Modern Indonesia had been defined by the 1998’s reformation and has seen a progressing economy and foreign relationships in the years since.