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In 1998, the people of Indonesia took to the streets and overthrew their longtime dictator, Suharto.
1998年，印度尼西亞人民走上街頭，推翻了長期的獨裁者蘇哈托
It was an amazing moment, but it was also a scary one.
那是一個令人激動的時刻，但也是一個可怕的時刻
With 250 million people, Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country on Earth.
擁有2.5億人口的印尼是地球上最大的以穆斯林為主的國家
It's also hot, huge and unruly, made up of 17,000 islands,
它還很熱、很大并且難以管理，由17000個島嶼組成
where people speak close to a thousand languages.
全國人民說著將近1000種不同的語言
Now, Suharto had been a dictator, and a nasty one.
蘇哈托是一個獨裁者，并且是一個很令人厭惡的獨裁者
But he'd also been a pretty effective tyrant,
但他也是一個很實在的暴君
and he'd always been careful to keep religion out of politics.
他一直小心的不讓宗教滲入到政治中來
So experts feared that without him keeping a lid on things,
因此專家還擔心如果沒有他控制局面
the country would explode, or religious extremists would take over
這個國家有可能分崩離析，或者宗教極端主義者可能掌管這個國家
and turn Indonesia into a tropical version of Iran.
并將印尼變成熱帶地區的伊朗。
And that's just what seemed to happen at first.
一開始事情似乎是朝著那個方向發展的。
In the country's first free elections, in 1999,
1999年在這個國家舉行的第一次自由選舉中
Islamist parties scored 36 percent of the vote,
伊斯蘭政黨得到了36%的選票
and the islands burned as riots and terror attacks killed thousands.
這些島嶼開始戰火不斷，騷亂和恐怖襲擊導致數以千計的民眾死亡
Since then, however, Indonesia has taken a surprising turn.
然而，從那以后，印尼卻發生了出人意料的轉變
While ordinary folks have grown more pious on a personal level --
從個人層面上來說普通民眾變得更加虔誠了--
I saw a lot more headscarves on a recent visit than I would have a decade ago
我最近一次訪問見到的戴頭巾的民眾要比十年前更多了
the country's politics have moved in the opposite direction.
這個國家的政治卻走向了一個相反的方向。
Indonesia is now a pretty decent democracy.
印尼現在是一個相當民主的國家。
And yet, its Islamist parties have steadily lost support,
而它的伊斯蘭政黨正在持續地失去支持，
from a high of about 38 percent in 2004 down to 25 percent in 2014.
從2004年高達38%的支持率降至2014年的25%
As for terrorism, it's now extremely rare.
而恐怖主義現在也非常之少了。
