Winding road to Indonesian democracy

http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-180614.html



Winding road to Indonesian democracy
By Michael Vatikiotis and John McBeth
Jun 18, '14

JAVA - Hugging the north coast of Java virtually parallel to the equator runs one of Indonesia's oldest roads, a two-lane carriageway that is perhaps an even more vital commercial artery now than when it was originally built.

The so-called "post road" was built by the Dutch in the 19th century to carry mail and other goods between the old colonial capital of Batavia (now Jakarta) and the eastern port city of Surabaya. Tens of thousands of Javanese workers were forced to build the road and countless numbers died from disease and maltreatment at the hands of their brutal colonial overlords.

Two centuries later, the road remains one of the main transport routes running across this island of more than 100 million people, laden with trucks and buses careering along a route linking old pre-colonial sultanates to the graves of prominent 15th century Muslim converts.

Traveling along this road over a four-day period at the start of the official presidential election campaign in the first week of June, these correspondents spoke to voters across a wide area of Central and East Java, widely viewed as a hotly contested electoral battleground.