Religious demography and separatism in Indonesia - the making of East Timor

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Those who want to read the monograph in one go, please

provided below. Those who would like to enjoy it in instalments, this is

just Part 1 and a few more to follow. Read each one at leisure and give

it a serious thought.

Namaste/ S V Badri, Chennai

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Dear all, in October 2003, I presented a paper on Indonesia and the

maiking of East Timor in New Delhi at a seminar. While I went back

repeatedly to East Timor, I never re-read my writing on Indonesia. The

narratyion is important and critical today as it was when I wrote it. I

will send a small portion of this monograph every day. Of course I had a

reason to give it the focus I did but I hope you will all find it as

important as I did. It has lessons for Hindu nationalists. regards, RR.

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<http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=89\

0 & Itemid=1> Religious demography and separatism in Indonesia – the

making of East Timor - by Radha Rajan Post independence Indonesia has

lessons for India which we may ignore only at our peril. Nebulously

referred to as the Indies by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English,

this archipelago was invaded and occupied by these three major colonial

powers for over five centuries.

The end of colonialism resulted in the independence of the archipelago

which now called itself Indonesia; but independence came with a terrible

price. Almost every major small and big island was either vivified or

left with an acute separatist movement threatening secession. Thus what

was Borneo had the head and hump removed to form a part of the new

Malaysia with a small independent Sultanate of Brunei sandwiched between

them. What remained of Borneo with Indonesia was named Kalimantan.

 

The northernmost tip of Sumatra, the ancient sultanate of Aceh has been

accorded special status within the Indonesian constitution but there is

a growing " Free Aceh Movement " seeking secession from Indonesia.

There is a growing demand for secession in the Maluku islands too and

this Christian majority island declared itself to be the Republic of

South Maluku in 1950 but the move was thwarted effectively by Sukarno.

 

East of Java and to the North of Australia lies the island of Timor.

Divided into two by the Dutch and the Portuguese, the western half of

the island, under Dutch control became a part of Indonesia while the

eastern half, under Portuguese control seceded from Indonesia in 1999

and became an independent state in 2002.

 

European colonialism created Christian majority (Catholic and

Protestant) regions in several islands and provinces of Indonesia, each

of which is a potential threat to the country's territorial

integrity. East Timor, Aceh, Maluku, and Irian Jaya are just a few

instances of the threat of secession posed by religious demography.

Sulawesi and Kalimantan too continue to be plagued by Christian

separatism.

 

It is important to note that the island of Bali is a Hindu majority

island and continues to remain an integral part of the Indonesian nation

and State. The islands and provinces demanding self-determination and

secession are all either Christian or Muslim majority regions. These

demands are either backed by the Church or extremist Islam. And this is

as true of Indonesia as it is true of the rest of the world wherever

there are violent movements for self-determination and secession.

 

The making of East Timor, the forces and agents of secession arrayed

against the Indonesian state and which created this new Christian state

from an old nation, is a lesson for India which has similar hotbeds of

separatism within its own territory.

 

This paper traces briefly the advent of the Netherlands, Britain,

Portugal and Japan into the Indies and the consequences of the interplay

between these colonial powers on the fledgling Republic of Indonesia. It

is important to study the role of these colonial powers and the UN

because of the seeds of discord sown by them and left to mature within

the young nation-state leading to separatism and secession. This paper

also deals with the role of the Vatican, the Catholic hierarchy, and the

UN in the inventing of the State of East Timor.

 

EARLY HISTORY

The archipelago called `Suvarnabhumi' in Indian classical texts

had Hindu kings ruling large parts of `dvipantara' or `Jambu

dvipa' as early as 100 AD. Even at this time King Aji Saka

introduced the writing system in Java and Sumatra using one of the

southern scripts from India. There were Hindu kings in the first century

AD even in the Malay province, in Kedah and in Kutai in Kalimantan.

Buddhism arrives in Sumatra in the fourth century and according to

Chinese records of the times, the region was already renowned for its

high culture and civilization. Hindu and Buddhist kings build

magnificent temples in central Java at Borobudur and Prambanan in the

sixth century. Indonesia was ruled by large Hindu and Buddhist dynasties

who establish powerful kingdoms which flourish and expand until the 15th

century by which time Hindu and Buddhist rulers convert to Islam and

kingdoms are converted to sultanates.

 

While Islam enters the archipelago, into Java and Sumatra as early as

the eighth century, it is the religion of the migrant traders who come

to these islands from India. Historical records of the Chinese Tang

Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) tell of Arab traders who stopped at Indonesian

ports along the way to Guangzhou and other southern Chinese ports.

Because commerce was more prevalent along the coasts of Sumatra, Java,

and the eastern archipelago than in inland areas of Java, Islamization

of the archipelago proceeded more rapidly along the pasisir or the

coastal regions of the north and only much later in the heartland of

Java.

 

The advent of Sufi Islam in the thirteenth century facilitated the

conversion of the ruling elite in the kingdoms in and around Java and

Sumatra. Sufism, like Christian missionary tactics today, borrowed

heavily from the cultures that it sought to subvert and eventually

exterminate. With its emphasis on mysticism, and self-experience

revealing the truth of the ultimate reality of God, Sufi Islam found

greater acceptance among the Hindu-Buddhist ruling elite and was thus

successful in making sultanates out of their erstwhile Hindu and

Buddhist kingdoms. Aceh converts to Islam in 1400 AD and King

Parameswara of the port city of Melaka converts to Islam upon marrying

the daughter of the Sultan of Pasai. He thereupon called himself

Iskandar Syah and the kingdom of Melaka became the sultanate of Melaka.

This was the beginning of the Islamisation of the ruling elite of the

archipelago of Indonesia.

 

The greater portion of the archipelago was Islamised by the sixteenth

century and it was around this time that the sultanates and islands of

the Indonesian archipelago witnessed the unending influx of European

colonialists from Portugal, Netherlands and England making a beeline for

their islands in search of quick wealth from their abundant and varied

natural resources. They also occupied territory, fought wars among

themselves and against the sultanates of the Indies, and altered the

religious demography of many of the provinces and the islands in the

process.

 

(To be continued)