From: setlurbadri <svbadri@gmail.com>
To: issuesonline_worldwide@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 7 May, 2009 22:28:08
Subject: [issuesonline_worldwide] Religious demography and separatism in Indonesia - the making of East Timor
Those who want to read the monograph in one go, please click on the link
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
---
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.
http://www.vigilonl ine.com/index. php?option= com_content& task=view& id=890\
&Itemid=1
<http://www.vigilonl ine.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)
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