Beyond multiculturalism: Redefining Indonesian nationhood in a globalized age

A country of more than 13,000 islands, inhabited by 240 million people made up of 300 ethnic groups speaking over 700 languages, it is a marvel that Indonesia, after its 66 years of age, is still intact as a nation state. The country has been wracked by many internal conflicts, the worst of which was the communist cleansing bloodbath of 1965, which killed approximately half a million people (Cribb 1990, 2001). It survived the threat of secession when the Free Acehnese Movement reached a peace agreement with the central government in 2005 (Ishak 2008). The nation experienced inter-ethnic clashes on the island of Kalimantan in 1999 and severe religious conflict on the island of Ambon in 2002 (Van Klinken 2007, Brown 2005).