Jakarta - Indonesia : An amazing insight.

When I was told to visit Jakarta by my boss, I was sceptical about the visit as I have a notion that Jakarta is dusty , dirty and jam packed.  This mind-set have been enforced by what other people told me about Jakarta.  One of my friend told me before the visit is that I can find people selling vigra everywhere and stuffed chicket toys if you want to use it.  His comments co-incide with my understanding of Jakarta.

I was taken a back when I was there.  There is so many international hotels  and I stayed at selayang Mulia , a 5 star hotel and it was a very big hotel and the security was tight.  Many foreigners were staying there.  On arrival , it was already in the evening and my host was not free to entertain us there.  So, I went with my collegaue to a Japanese buffet in the hotel.  I was shock to see so much vairety of Japanese food and sushimi was free flow , teppanyaki, grill sea food and a very good spread of local dessert.  Ow, it was heaven for Japanese food lovers. 

I had Japanese lunch and dinner for three days and the beef ( wakil  beef) was so good and it just melt in my mouth.  It was a food paradise and I feel the food is so much better in Jakarta then in KL and Penang except the local food. My biased mind-set have gradually change and I feel good about Indonesia.

Lately, I read an article that Indonesia rejected " the islamic state" and this means that eveybody is equal and stands on meritocracy.  After Jokowi become President, the country is going to improve leaps and bounce. Jokowi was  a former governor of Central Java and Jakarta and he was a positive to the financial market and business community.  I also learned that an ethnic chinese is now the governor of Central java and in a matter of time, there is a possibility of a chinese helming the postion of the President in Indoneisa.  Things are changing very fast in Indonesia and if they are able to dismantle the system and mindset of the Suharto regime then  the country will have a bright future.

My mind turn back to my home country, Malaysia and it has a population of only 27 million people while Indonesia have a 300 million population. Why my country which is more manageable and full of natural resources is performing so much worst off than Indonesia ? This is a mind bogging question and it is a sad affair.

I hope things will change  in my home country and it is based on meritorcracy which is an important factor for the country to grow.

Namaste.