Description
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world’s largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles), the 14th largest by land area and 7th in the combined sea and land area. With over 267 million people, it is the world’s 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world’s most populous island, is home to more than half of the country’s population. Its capital is Jakarta.
The Flag of Indonesia is a simple bi-colour with two equal horizontal bands, red (top) and white (bottom). It was introduced and hoisted in public during the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945 in Pegangsaan Timur 56 in Jakarta, and again when the Dutch formally transferred sovereignty on 27 December 1949. The design of the flag has remained unchanged since. The flag of Indonesia is graphically identical to the Flag of Monaco, with a slight difference only in the ratio of its dimensions. The flag of Poland has similar dimensions but has the colours reversed: white on top and red on the bottom. In both, the red is of a slightly darker shade. Several opinions have been expressed on the meaning of the red and white in the Indonesian flag. One opinion is that the red stands for courage, while the white stands for purity. Another is that red represents the human body or physical life, while white represents the soul or spiritual life; together they stand for a complete human being. As Sukarno said: “Red is the symbol of courage, White is the symbol of purity. Our flag has been there for 600 years”. The colours are the same as those used in the flag of the Majapahit.