Indonesia's place in the global jungle
Its people agree that their democratic country should play a bigger global role; but what?
BY DINT of size, population and potential wealth, Indonesia has long loomed large over its own backyard. The archipelago nation bestrides the world's busiest sea lanes. Some 231m Indonesians account for two-fifths of the population of ASEAN, the ten-country Association of South-East Asian Nations. A young and reasonably educated population offers perennial promise, as do vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals, forests and palm-oil plantations. For all that ASEAN operates according to its famed consensus, Indonesia has been its stealth leader.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Indonesia's place in the global jungle"
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