INDONESIA OUTLOOK

From  Joshua Kurlantzick at the Atlantic 4 Sept 2012 Over the past decade and a half, Indonesia's democratic transition has been praised (including by me) as one of the most impressive of any developing country in the world. The distance traveled from the chaos, and potential split-up of the country, in the late 1990s, to the relative stability and high growth of today, is truly impressive.  One of the main aspects of the democratization often highlighted by both Indonesia experts and many Indonesians themselves is how the country utilized political and economic devolution to reduce the power of Jakarta, cut the legacy of Suharto's rule, increase local participation in politics and the economy, and improve citizens' feeling of belonging to the polity. Decentralization clearly has had many benefits. It has helped broaden and spread growth, and in some ways has helped pit local officials against each other in the race for investment, forcing them to take measu...