The connection between religion and contemporary politics ( both Assignment

The connection between religion and contemporary politics ( both public and private) in Indonesia - Assignment Example It also needs to be viewed from the historical perspective of the country itself and how the significant political changes affected the way religion influence the ordinary life. A closer look at the cultural history of the country also indicate that Indonesia remained under the occupation and as such this also affected the way its culture has developed over the period of time. Over the period of time, Indonesian society was developed and socially influenced based on the non-Islamic lines therefore in order to understand the influence of religion on Indonesian society, it is really important to carefully separate the different social and cultural elements in order to study the influence of religion on Indonesian society. (Suryadinata, 2003) This paper will therefore attempt to discuss the religion and contemporary politics in Indonesia and will offer insight into various political transitions which country made and how religion influenced the overall outcomes in the Indonesian society. Indonesia remained under four different occupations from different colonial powers including Dutch, Portuguese and Britain. It also remained under the occupation of Japan till its struggle for the independence was successful. Dutch occupation was probably the longest colonization of Indonesia as it lasted for more than 350 years. During these years, Indonesian society went through many changes and as such religious sentiments and values were mixed with the intrusion of new set of values implemented by Dutch during their occupation of the country. Dutch occupation however, also brought forward some critical policy changes in the way how the Indonesian government was run. From influencing the way how agriculture produce was to be distributed between rural and urban areas of the country to the establishment of solid economic administration, Dutch set up most of the physical infrastructure in the country and allowed it to develop a growing