LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Indonesia: East Timor
built 635 days ago
Given the level of decentralization that has occurred in Indonesia and the fiscal space now available, the Indonesian government has a unique opportunity to revamp the country’s neglected public services. If carefully managed, this could allow the lagging regions of eastern Indonesian to catch up with other more affluent areas of the country in terms of social indicators. It could ... enable Indonesian to focus on the next generation of reforms, namely improving quality of public services and targeted infrastructure provision. In effect, the correct allocation of public funds and the careful management of those funds once they have been allocated have become the main issues for public spending in Indonesia going forward.
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A secular nation with a large Muslim majority, Indonesia has achieved remarkable economic development success over the past decade and, until the 1997-1998 Asian economic crisis, was considered to be among the best performing East Asian economies. Indonesia grew at a rate of 7% between 1985 and 1995, and reduced its poverty rate from 60% to 11% between 1970 and 1996. Indonesia is rich in natural resources, with oil, gas, and textile being its main export commodities.
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Indonesia is ... prone to earthquakes, with epicenters distributed along the same regions as volcanoes. Although many causes contribute to the geological instability of the area, the main cause is the friction between the underlying tectonic plates (see Plate Tectonics). Most of Indonesia sits on the Eurasian Plate. When the Eurasian Plate collides with the Indo-Australian Plate to the south and east or the Philippine and Caroline plates to the northeast, the second plate slides underneath the Eurasian Plate. The pressure causes geological activity on the Earth’s surface that often takes the form of earthquakes or volcanoes. Recent destructive earthquakes include a 1992 tremor that struck the island of Flores, killing 2,000, and an earthquake that struck Sumatra in 1994, killing 180.
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In 1975, Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese half of the island of Timor; it seized the territory in 1976. A separatist movement developed at once. Unlike the rest of Indonesia, which had been a Dutch colony, East Timor was governed by the Portuguese for 400 years, and while 90% of Indonesians are Muslim, the East Timorese are primarily Catholic. More than 200,000 Timorese are reported to have died from famine, disease, and fighting since the annexation. In 1996, two East Timorese resistance activists, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta, received the Nobel Peace Prize.
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The climate of Indonesia is tropical. The east monsoon, from June to September, brings dry weather, while the west monsoon, from December to March brings rain. Thunderstorms can happen at any time of the year and sudden flooding of roads and consequent traffic jams are common during the wet season. Temperatures range from 21°C to 33°C, except at higher altitudes, and humidity is high (60–100 per cent). Heaviest rainfall is recorded in December and January.
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Nearby countries include Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and East Timor which share land borders with Indonesia. Indonesia is ... adjacent to Australia to the south, Singapore to the north-west, and Phillipines to the north-east.
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East Timor