Why Indonesia is getting poorer day by day?

What distinct rich, developed countries and with their poor counterparts? My professor during master study would probably say: utilization of natural resources, human resources, and most importantly technological know-how. That's the generic text book answer.

Those factors, add with law of diminishing returns, then we have the emerging nations of India, Korea, China and Thailand of which products nowadays challenge that of developed countries. Law of diminishing returns means that at some point, the same input would generate less or smaller increase in output. Say, you build a road; in America or other rich countries, a new road is just a relief of congestion problem, but in India it means goods can be delivered in a cheaper and effective way. So, once those emerging nation can fully utilized their natural, human and technological resources then they can speed up production and generate more profits. Is that easy, right? Well, not really, because the previous premise doesn't answer the question of why there are still poor, developing countries, like Myanmar, Philippines, Ghana, Morocco and, sadly, my own motherland, Indonesia.

Indonesia consists of 13 thousand islands, with only 6 main islands. Its natural resources ranging from coal, oil, gas, to spices and tobacco. But if you look at their national check book (OK, it's a silly term, but I think it's the easiest way to explain it), there have more debt including loans, than hard cash. Natural resources? Check. Human resouces? Check. Technology? Check. So, why oh why Indonesia is getting poorer by the day?

This week, my friends from Belgium came to Singapore for a short 6 hours visit. One of them used to work as a docent in the university where I got my degree. Having worked there for 5 years with students especially from Asia, he noted that most Asian students, like Chinese, Myanmar, Vietnamese and Indonesian had difficulty in expressing their words, let alone to debate their mentors. They are not open minded or able to think outside the box because of the way they were educated in their home countries. I was like that too. I remember I went to my first exam, sat at my desk, opened the exam paper and whispered "am I in the wrong class?" Because the questions were far different than what we had discussed in class and it required us to think creatively.

I had a discussion with one of the professor, during an oral exam, who accused of us, Asians of being sluggish (we discussed about Kyoto protocol and CO2 emission in relation with 3^rd world countries, blah). I agree to him in certain way. Some of us (err, me included perhaps), Indonesians, are lazy indeed. It was sad to read a survey that said poor people in Indonesia spend most of their money on….. cigarettes and prepaid cell phone top-up instead of, for example, on food or their children's education. But then again, I remembered a story that my helper often told me. My helper who comes from a remote area in Java told me that in her village people of all ages work hard every day, even her 80 years old grandmother still goes to the jungle daily to search for fire woods. But sadly, most of them still live in poverty. I discussed with her what kind of work or business that they do and then I know the answer to why they are being poor all along: they ALL make the same stuff called 'gula aren' or Javanese sugar. None of them has any idea to produce something out of the ordinary, because well, they were never taught to do so. In conclusion: first, they were not educated properly. And second, they are not familiar with the word efficient, or effective: they work hard but do not work smart.

Unfortunately, the government is also being infected to this "inefficiency and ineffectiveness" syndrome. Do you know how many licences, certificates, tax forms, for a foreign investor in order to build a power plant, or any other kind of plant in Indonesia? Almost 70 items, not to include an endorsement from several ministries. It took a year to start realizing a power plant contract and at least another year to start building. That's just a small example. We have so many cabinets and government terms but it stays the same. Some said it's because the syndrome has been deeply rooted in our society, but some said it's just because they don't want to change. Because less bureaucracy means less way to distort the process means less way to receive 'reward' perhaps? I don't know, I dare not say.

Last month, we just had our election. A smooth and, to some extent, fair election. People are happy and relieved with the result. Then, we had the bombing in Jakarta. We discussed (me and my Belgium friends) why this thing can happen again for the second time in Jakarta. Are people not aware of it? Don't they suppose to know if there are terrorists living among them? Those were the questions. But it is true, those radical can live among civilians because anonymity can exist in Indonesia. Because you do not need any ID to visit a doctor, a clinic, buy drug and in some cases, to open a business. Because bureaucracy has made the system so messed up, people have learnt to trust authority less and lesser. Apparently, some people still haven't learned from the bombing and the issues surrounding it. The non-winning election parties cannot accept their lost and vowed to take this matter to the higher court. And the winning party instead of standing proud is grumbling like an old man. They are missing the points and stay the same.

So, we are poorly educated, inefficient, ineffective people with a bureaucratic government.

Then what should we do to change this? This is where our part comes in. WE need to EDUCATE people. We can do that by making campaigns (like the "we are not afraid" campaign, the "Indonesia unite" campaign that's been circulating on the net). We can educate people to become more creative by giving less privileged people proper education, giving loans with micro credit institution, and donate, donate, donate. We can 'force' the government to provide a better opportunity for all people to have education, and a better education system too.

And we need to educate the GOVERNMENT. We need to be critical without being cynical; we need to praise them for exceptional actions and not to worship some individuals no matter how immoral they behaved. We need to be vigilant and to speak up without being anarchist!

This is the part where we must UNITE and EDUCATE. And maybe in the next five, ten or twenty years, Indonesia will not be depicted as a poor country anymore.

PS: if u hv any idea of how to eradicate poverty in Indonesia please give me some (I can incorporate it for my next post with mentioning your name ).