ABSTRACT
Indonesia is a very diverse country with a total population of about 250 million (Melisa and Muhammad, 2013) and is the largest Muslim country globally. The archipelago of Indonesia comprises 13,466 islands with five major islands namely Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes) and Irian Jaya (Menkokesra, 2012). The majority of the Indonesian population are concentrated on Java, which is only 6.60 per cent of the total inhabited area of Indonesia (Suryadinata et al., 2003). Bahasa Indonesia is the national language. However, there are 250 other regional languages and dialects in Indonesia (Bennington and Habir, 2003). There are more than 1,000 ethnic/sub-ethnic groups with only five considered to be significant numerically: Javanese (41.7 per cent), Sundanese (15.41 per cent), Malay (3.45 per cent), Madurese (3.37 per cent) and Batak (3.02 per cent). The ethnic Chinese represent less than 2 per cent of the population yet are acclaimed as the engine behind Indonesia’s economic growth (Suryadinata et al., 2003). Additionally, the Javanese, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia are politically dominant (Brown, 2012). Five of six Indonesia’s Presidents since the independence have been Javanese while the higher echelons of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (that is, Tentara Nasional Indonesia or TNI) are dominated by Javanese (Brown, 2012).
