@Lev:

LOL, Indonesia faces no threat from separatism. There are over 750 ethnic-groups in Indonesia living on 18,000 islands strecthing the distance of Ireland to Iran. Only in Papua there are still separatism (the other Aceh separatism having surrendered). The cause is simple: Hitlerite Papuan ethnic-chauvinism. These brainless Papuan separatists are just a joke, they are just ill-behaved children compared with real lethal separatist groups like IRA in United Kingdom, NPA and MILF in Philippines, PULO in Thailand, Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and the hundreds of armed separatist outfits
in India's Kashmir and Northeast. For instance, we only need less than 10,000 soldiers and police in huge West Papua, while UK army put nearly one-third of its strength to impose British rule in the tiny Northern Ireland, much more than British troops in Iraq.

Indonesia, the most decentralised country in the world, is fine as it is.

@citizen:

Indeed, East Timor is just an artificial construct born out of Portuguese vanity. They held-on to this half-island as a sad reminder that they once had many colonial possessions throughout Indonesia before being kicked-out by the Dutch.

@Proud
I remember reading an article in Kompas that the first president Soekarno said that our country is "The most broken-up country in the world" (maybe it's a joke) when he adress the need of indonesia to have a strong Air Force.
Indonesia is just fine. :) I don't think it will be broken up like what some Australians hope so.

As an Indonesian with a bit Acehnese in my blood, I am happy with Aceh peace deal. People think that the rebels are in a solid unity between themselves, while in fact they are divided. If Aceh got freedom, they will stop fighting Indonesia and start fighting each other over power.

East Timor is a sad case. I remember in the past Soeharto regime said that if East Timor given referendum they would descend into civil war, and the pro-independence activist would comment that that was only a voice of one who want to hold status quo.
Also remember that Abdurrahman Wahid said that Indonesia will be fine without East Timor but East Timor won't survive without Indonesia, to which Xanana said that East Timor would be just fine wihout Indonesia. I sincerely hope they prove it. A stable and peaceful neighbor is better than a chaotic one.

If East Timor is an artificial construct born out of Portuguese vanity, then surely Indonesia is an artificial construct born out of Dutch vanity?

This is really bizaare that Australians are telling Indonesians to adopt our Federal system, claiming that our system is superior to theirs. This is not only offencive as it is patronising to Indonesia.

Federation never was efficient! Federation was only formed because 100 years ago, the 6 British colonies hated each others guts, and they were all so currupt, none admitted their own courruption, but all noted each other's corruption.

The only thing that made Australia a Federation was Xenophobia. They wanted one army to keep unwanted immigrants out: "the yellow peril". This was of course the unofficial "white Australia Policy". NSW Governor Parke's 20 year campaign for Federation never worked for its virtues. When huge boats of Chinese wanted to immigrate and tried to dock in, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane all cities rejected them. The anti-Chinese demonstrations were the largest public demonstrations in Australian history, they were in hysterical panic.

A Federation was not a desired outcome for a respected British Colony, it was a compromise. The British and New Zealand Unitary systems were always the more respected role models in the commonwealth: just like 'mother England', as it was more efficient, standard, and pragmatic. The British feared our proposal was hybridised with the US system, and this was not Cricket!

Federations are expensive: 3 levels of Government, beurocratic, and since 1901, the borders are all outdated. This system is nothing else but tired and quite frankly, full of itself.

East Timor was always about the oil for Australia. Nothing else. In the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, Australia and its corporations do the same to them all. They make sure the chief of police and the the Chief Justice is appointed by Australia. Their PMs take orders from the Australian appoinments. They will try this in East Timor now. Australia systematically stirred the pot to start with. There will be no peace before Australia gets what it wants. Australia is an empire with an agenda. It wants no criticism for stealing the oil wells.

@otokonoko:

Wrong, Indonesia is a pure idea created in the huge all-Indonesia student conference on October 28, 1928 where students representing ethnic-groups from Sumatera to West Timor braved threats of Dutch secret police PID (Politieke Inlichtingen Dienst) to pledge the creation of one people, one nation, and one language : INDONESIA. This pledge was accomplished by proclamation of Indonesian Republic in 1945 and reigned victorious over attempt to destroy it by an invasion force of 200,000 Dutch soldiers during war of independence (1945-49) thanks to the wholehearted support of Indonesian people.

East Timor, meanwhile, has always been a fragmented society with opposing aims based on ideology and ethnicity. As we can see with its rapid descent to self-destruction, East Timorese "independence" is not sustainable because it is an idea that was not created from within, but one that is imposed and shoved down their throat by foreign outsiders. During the referendum, uneducated East Timorese were easily fooled by endless brainwashing and propaganda from foreigners that falsely promised nirvana if they separate from Indonesia.

As recent events shown, there is simply no feeling of unity or nationalism amongst East Timorese, with the people completely having no regard for the so-called "leaders" like Ramos-Horta and Alkatiri who are foreigners for them. As we can see, none of these "leaders" have any influence over East Timorese people, they are completely unable to prevent total collapse of their country into failed state. Now, these clowns are now hilariously begging for East Timor to be re-colonised by the UN.

@saintfletcher:
You are right, it is hilarious that an Australian try to tell Indonesia to abandon our superior indigenously-made system for their own flawed system that was created only to strengthen xenophobic White Australia Policy.

@saintfletcher

I agree with you that Australia's federal system was adopted as a compromise between the British colonies and is no longer necessarily appropriate for Australia. However, in Indonesia it is appropriate. A dispassionate study of the objective conditions of Indonesia will show why a unitary government is inappropriate. If you like, you may compare the internal warfare and suppression of the Republic of Indonesia to the Federation of Malaysia.

@proud
Just because Indonesia faces no obvious military threat to seperatism does not mean that the sentiment does not exist. After all, Indonesia certainly faced no military threat from Timor Leste independence fighters by the late 1990s; they had less than 300 arms. However almost 80% of the population still voted for independence.

Apart from a clear sentiment for political autonomy (and often outright independence) in West Papua and Acheh. It is, of course, ridiculous to claim that GAM has surrended. The 2005 Helsinki peace treaty is not a surrender by any stretch of the imagination.

Further, you've conviently left out the religous violence in Lombok and the Moluccas, and the indigenous seperatist violence in Kalimatan.

All of which does raise an interesting question; would you be prepared to see independence or autonomy referendums conducted in said regions and for that matter, Bali?

And if not, would you still be "proud" of Indonesia if it returned to being a military dictatorship, or if it gave up any pretense of secularism, or if it engaged in state-sponsored terrorism?

I just want to see what you're truly proud of