You have only to glance down from one of the aircraft that cross-cross Indonesia to get striking evidence of the country's essential problem. Everywhere you look there are islands, ranging in size from rocks to small nations. Altogether there are 17,000 though no one seems absolutely sure. Scattered through the 6,000 inhabited ones are 365 ethnic groups, speaking scores of dialects. Only strong government, it seems, could unite such a nation. That, or an exceptionally neighbourly attitude on the part of the inhabitants. Indonesia enjoys neither. Its vast, unconnected acreage makes it extraordinarily difficult to govern. The diversity of its...