The state of the nation of Indonesia

I just arrived from Bali, Indonesia where I was invited to speak at a convention of about a thousand lawyers from 10 ASEAN countries who are specializing in labor and HR cases. I have been astounded at the quantum leaps of Indonesian socio-economic development and even in the fields of law, justice and human capital development, education, culture and tourism, not to forget trade, industry and agriculture. Indonesia is now number one in ASEAN. The Philippines is a poor number six in GDP and number 7 in per capita income.

Half a century ago, the Philippines was the shining star in the Asia-Pacific region, second only to Japan in economic development, trade, industry, levels of education, quality of life, beauty of tourist attractions and advancement in governance, public administration. The Indonesians were envious of Filipinos who were more exposed to the international community of nations. Today, the Philippines is beaten by Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and even by Vietnam. What happened?

When ASEAN was founded in 1967, the Philippines was number one among the founding members: Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Today, our country is the lowest among the five and even overtaken by Vietnam which was not a founding member but joined ASEAN only in 1995. Indonesia is now number one in Gross Domestic Product and our country is only number 6 among the 10 ASEAN member nations. In terms of per capita income, Indonesia is number 5 and the Philippines is sadly number 7, within the vicinity of Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Why can't we compete with Indonesia? The reasons are legion.

First in terms of size, Indonesia has 1,913,580 square kilometers in area spread in 18,110 islands although only 6,000 are inhabited. The Philippines has only 300,000 square kilometers in 7107 islands during high tide. That means that our country is smaller than one-sixth of that huge nation of Indonesia. It has a population of 273,753,000 while ours is only 114 million or just a little more than one third.  Indonesia' GDP (PPP) in 2023 is $4.398 trillion and per capita (PPP) of $15,555. The Philippines' GDP is $1.289 trillion and a per capita of $11,420. In the fifties and sixties, we used to have gold, copra, hemp, timber, and copper. Today, we have OFWs.

 In terms of nominal GDP in 2023, Indonesia has $1.392 trillion and nominal per capita of $5,096. The Philippines' nominal GDP is only $440 Billion and a nominal per capita of $3,905 US dollars. Unemployment rate in Indonesia is 3.6 percent, ours is 5.3 and it even reached double digits during the pandemic. Taxes in Indonesia are only 30.10 while ours is 43.10. Cost of living in Indonesia is lower at 33.10 while it  is 37.22 in the Philippines. Our government debt to GDP ratio is an alarming 56.95 percent while it is only 41.15 in Indonesia. We have almost the same corruption index. Indonesia has 66, ours is 67. There's more fun in the Philippines.

On quality of life, Indonesia has better political stability at 62, ours is just 55. On civil rights, we were rated 38, they have a better score of 45. On health care we are supposed to have a better score of 40 over Indonesia's 30. They have a better cost of living at 53(that means it is more affordable there) compared to our 46. They have a bigger territory although with a bigger population and so they only have 143 people for every square kilometer. We are more crowded with 380 per square kilometer. Our male life expectancy is higher at 67 while they have 66. Our female life expectancy is at 71, theirs is at 70. We produce more babies with a birth rate of 21.81 percent, while Indonesians have only 16.43. They have a higher death rate at 10.07 percent, ours is 7.31.

Indonesia has 496,607 kilometers of road, and we have 216,387 kilometers only. They have 8,159 kilometers of railways. Ours is a petty 77 kilometers. They have 101 airports and we have only 46.  They have 10,427 seaports and we only have 1,805. On energy, they have a production capacity of 605 billion kwh, ours is 244 billion. They produce 280 billion kwh, while ours is 101 billion. They consume  257 billion while we consume 91 billion kwh. On telecommunications, Indonesia has 8 million landlines and we only have 5 million. We have 164 million cell phones and they have 366 million internet users. We have 57 million  internet users. They have 1,345,000. internet servers.  We 426,000.

On healthcare, Indonesia has more than one bed for every thousand inhabitants, and we have less than one. We have more doctors but a good number of them work abroad. Their doctors are less than one half of ours but they stay in Indonesia to serve their own people. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the whole world. It is rich in oil and gas and has a working parliamentary government with better quality of politics and governance. There are also many migrant workers from Indonesia but most of them go home to their native land at the end of their work contract.

Many OFWs refuse to come home. They apply for permanent resident status and marry their employers. They love the Philippines but they find more fun working abroad. The Indonesians always go home to their families and they only marry Indonesians.