“ If you want to know whether Islam, Democracy, Modernity and Women’s rights can coexist, go to Indonesia, ” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on a trip to Southeast Asia earlier this year.
Mrs. Clinton has a whole lot of reasons when she said those words, because Indonesia with a population of 240 million people is the fourth most populated country on earth, it has the largest Muslim population, with a land area of around 2 million square kilometers, sucessfully and peacefully carried out national and regional Parliamentary elections last April, Presidential election last July, once had a woman president, economy that is not bad, strong civilian government, improving legal system and implementations, plus a whole lot of other good things.
Compared to other Muslim countries which have been plagued by social and political unrests, e.g Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Afganistan, the over all conditions of Indonesia can be regarded as much better.
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I pray to God that my fellow Indonesians would work much harder, smarter and less emotional to make sure that everything, including security condition, would be much better. For which purpose we must seriously focus on developing our country, including maintaining our cultural heritage.
GOD BLESS INDONESIA!
Image: Courtesy of Lonely Planet.
