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Indonesia 1969-1996

Measured Progress in Indonesia

It is difficult for anyone who has not traveled in Southeast Asia to appreciate the vast territory that is encompassed there. Indonesia alone covers almost as much space on a map as the United States. Although much of this area is ocean, its size is tremendous all the same. Indonesians refer to their archipelago as Tanah Air-"land water." Indonesia consists of five large islands and 13,672 smaller ones (6,044 inhabited). Java, although not the largest island in size, has 107.6 million (60 percent) of the nation's 195 million people. The climate is tropical; the equator runs through several of Indonesia's main islands. The nation is large, diverse, beautiful, and generally fertile. The people speak many languages and form many cultural groups. Frank L. Cooley described Indonesia's complexity this way: "Geographical, ecological, geological and historical developments have combined to create conditions in which societies developed largely in isolation from one another for several hundreds, even thousands of years. This resulted in the formation of 200 to 300 distinct ethnic groups throughout the archipelago, each with its own language, social structure, customary law and folkways (adat), belief system, political system and sense of identity."1

Indonesia declared its independence from the Dutch on August 17, 1945, but four years of wars and negotiations followed before the Dutch withdrew. When Indonesia became independent of Dutch control in 1949, the people agreed to share Bahasa Indonesia (closely related to Malay) as the common language. Today, most Indonesians are fluent in the national language, a blessing for LDS proselyting work. Taking the restored gospel to Indonesia through the use of 250 mutually unintelligible languages would be almost impossible. Eighty-five percent of the populous is literate. Local loyalties are still strong, but since the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was defeated in its attempt to take over the government in 1965, the people have had an increased sense of nationhood and a strong anti-Communist feeling in government.

The constitution of 1945 stipulates in Article 1 that "the State is based on the recognition of one all-powerful God" and in Article 2 that "the State guarantees to each citizen the freedom to embrace the religion of his choice and to fulfill the religious obligations which conform to his faith." Liberty to propagate religion is guaranteed "on condition that it does not disturb religious peace."2 Because of its perceived "disturbing effect," open proselytizing is not allowed by the government; in fact, it discourages efforts by all religious groups to propagate their tenets. Hence, LDS missionary work has been limited to indirect methods such as radio broadcasts (used successfully during the early years of the mission), English-language instruction, speaking in worship services of other churches, and especially referrals from members. Over the years most of these methods have been limited or curtailed. Tracting and street contacting are not allowed.