Finalising the nation: The Indonesian military as the guarantor of national unity

Abstract: The Indonesian military sees itself as the guarantor of national unity, the state's last line of defence against separatist movements. This paper argues that the military's methods for maintaining national unity have been counterproductive. Its counter‐insurgency wars in Aceh and Papua have exacerbated the sense of alienation from Indonesia that the people in these provinces have felt. In this post‐Suharto era of political reform, the military has been unable to recognise that its old methods have failed, even after its obvious failure in East Timor, whose people, after living under a 24‐year military occupation, rejected continued integration with Indonesia in a referendum in 1999. The fact that the politicians in the legislative and executive branches of the state have tended to encourage the military to persist with its old methods suggests that the military by itself should not be faulted. Only political resolutions, such as the Helsinki agreement for ending the conflict in Aceh – an agreement that resulted more from the devastation of the December 2004 tsunami than from the Indonesian military's counter‐insurgency warfare – offer any guarantee of national unity.     

Meta-analysis on the association of population size and life history with inbreeding depression in plants

Inbreeding is common in plants and can have considerable effects on population viability, because of inbreeding depression. Understanding what determines the magnitude of inbreeding depression is of fundamental importance for conservation biology. We used meta-analysis of 116 studies and 107 plant species to investigate the effects of population size, test environment, life history characteristics and stage on the magnitude of inbreeding depression in 13 different fitness traits. We found that inbreeding depression levels significantly increase with population size. This may be a consequence of either, or both, a higher baseline of the level of inbreeding or increased impact of purging in small populations; unfortunately the available data did not allow distinguishing between these potential explanations. In general, inbreeding depression was found to be common across species and environments, and was significant in all traits examined. Yet, the magnitude of inbreeding depression was significantly influenced by plant longevity and life-history stage, and varied depending on how plant fitness was measured. Our findings highlight the fundamental role of population size in influencing the magnitude of inbreeding depression in plants. This clearly has important implications for conservation biology. Moreover, our findings on the overall generality of inbreeding depression confirm that inbreeding depression is one of the key factors reducing plant population fitness and viability. Hence, we need a better understanding on the architecture of inbreeding depression, how different ecological and historical conditions influence the levels of inbreeding depression in natural plant populations, and its impacts on community dynamics.