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Article: Indonesia: A durable nation state.(Opinion & Editorial)
- Article from:
- Manila Bulletin
- Article date:
- August 20, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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JAKARTA - Twenty years ago when I visited Jakarta, my host, the Minister of Labor of Indonesia, complained that Jakarta did not even have a skyline. Now, looking down on the city from the 48th story of the American Club in the heart of Jakarta. I find the opposite is true: the city is crisscrossed by high rises to form a credible modern skyline that looks more like an Asian Manhattan than the overgrown village that it was barely two decades ago.
Indonesia has a vast territory that if super-imposed on the map of Europe would extend from Ireland to the Urals. It is the world's largest archipelago, consisting of 13,200 islands, spread out from Sabang (Sumatra) to ...