Why Indonesia is on top and the Philippines is down

The bullet train of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, connecting two mega cities, Jakarta and Bandung, and reducing travel time from 3 hours to 40 minutes is the biggest symbol of Indonesia's progress due to the Indonesia's vision for the future, its dynamism and great leadership. The Philippines' "habalhabal" mentality is the most embarrassing evidence of the Filipino mentality of being content with mediocrity in a country stranded forever in history.

In the first place, Indonesia is a giant in size and population. But really, it is its leadership and hardworking people that propels its progress. The Philippines is more comparable to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam but we just want to show to our readers why Indonesia deserves to be on top. Indonesia has a vast territory of 1,913,580 square kilometers while we only have 300,000. Indonesia has a population of no less than 275,501,000 while ours is 115, 559,000. They have only 144 inhabitants per square kilometer while we do have 385.2. our population density is higher because they have a much larger territory. We have a higher birth rate 21.81 percent, while Indonesia has only 16.83 percent. We are faster in making babies.

On quality of life, Indonesia has a better political stability at 62 while ours is only 54. In civil rights, their rating is better at 45, ours is only 38. We have better healthcare at 40 while theirs is 30. Their death rate is 10.07 percent while ours is 7.31 percent. They have a better cost of living at 33.11 percent while ours is 36.47 percent. They have a lower average inflation rate at 4.21 Percent while ours is 5.82 percent. With weekly increase in oil and gas prices, our inflation rate can surge to 6.5 percent before Christmas. That would be very bad for us. Even with a much larger population, the average income in Indonesia is higher at 4,580 US dollars while the Filipinos is only 3,950. That is why we are number 7 in per capita income.

The Philippines is more heavily indebted. Our government debt to GDP ratio is an alarming 56.95 percent while Indonesia has 41.15. Both countries have a bad corruption index but the Philippines is worse at 67 percent. Our GDP is a measly 404.284 million US dollars while Indonesia's is 1,329 trillion US dollars. Indonesia has 544,474 network of highways. Ours is only 216,387. They have 7,032 kilometers of railways. Ours is only 532 old and dilapidated rails. Indonesia is an oil-producing and oil-exporting country with a production capacity of 615 billion kilowatts per hour and an actual production of 280 billion kph. It has a lot of production surplus which it exports to other countries. The Philippines, for the longest time, has been an oil-importing country and is too dependent on oil that its economy is captive to Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Surprisingly, Indonesia appears to have a better healthcare system. As to the number of hospital beds per thousand citizens, Indonesia is better off with 1.04 while we only have 0.90. We have a better ratio of number of doctors per a thousand of citizens, at 1.28 compared to their 0.38 but many of our doctors are working abroad. Their doctors stay in the village while ours prefer to work in high-paying private hospitals for the rich and the famous. The Philippines exceeds Indonesia in the number of patients infected with diabetes, HIV and TB. The Indonesian people have better social welfare and health care systems. We have better education and training institutions. But our graduates prefer to work abroad while most Indonesians stay to help their country.

Most of all, Indonesian politicians are more nationalistic, more peace-loving, largely united despite the diversity of their culture and languages. Many politicians there are also corrupt but only ten to twenty percent of public funds are stolen. Here, many suspect that most of public funds go to the pockets of trapos and bureaucrats. This must be the reason why investors are wary of coming to do business here. Billions had been promised but nothing much has come. We should be very sad and angry with what is happening to our country. Indonesia has a bullet train. We are stranded in traffic aboard our angkas and habalhabal.