Jakarta : India is the seventh largest country by area, Indonesia is 14th. We are the second most populous nation in the world, Indonesia ranks fourth. We have 24 regional languages and 447 native languages. Indonesia has Bahasa which is the official as well as national language and 700 native languages.
India is a Hindu majority (79.8 per cent of population) nation with Muslims accounting for 14.2 per cent, Christians 2.3 and Sikhs 1.7 per cent.
Indonesia is a Muslim majority country with 86.70 per cent of the population, followed by Christians (10.72), Hindus (1.74) and Buddhists (0.77 per cent).
Preamble declares India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic, while motto of Indonesia is “Unity in Diversity “.
We are a land of diversities — geographical, racial, climatic, linguistic, social, cultural, religious and regional. Indonesia too is neck and neck on this front with us and only misses out on climatic and geographical diversities.
Unlike India, Indonesia on the equator has year round tropical warm weather and is 100 per cent coastal surrounded by warm waters. With 17000 islands spread around the equator there is no scope for temperature variation.
Citizens of both strive hard to stay in better economic shape and improve their lot through agriculture, fishing and by being a part of the industrial workforce divided into two categories—blue and white collar.
However in spite of the above similarities both nations are like chalk and cheese.
Knowledge of English is an invaluable asset of Indians, while Indonesians are lagging behind on this front, even though English is the script of Bahasa. English is not part of the national school curriculum and even in varsities Bahasa is the medium of instruction.
India is home to a cold as well as hot deserts, it has snow bound Himalayas as well as tropical coastal areas, river basins and plateau. Being located on equater axis Indonesia neither has deserts nor snowbound mountains and plateau. Unlike the Himalayas spread over an area of 5.5 lakh kilometres in India, Puncak Jayawijaya (4884 meters) located in the Jayawijaya Mountains in Papua, is the tallest mountain in Indonesia and the only place to have snow.
India has four seasons, while Indonesia only has warm weather throughout the year.
As a nation for years we have been importing palm oil and coal from Indonesia, and now good quality Made in Indonesia clothing and shoes have also become an integral part of our store shelves.
Despite this awareness I alighted from the aircraft with a big brother attitude. May be I was still lost in the year 1947 when on Jawaharlal Nehru’s request Biju Patnaik (Present Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s father) piloted a Dakota plane to Java after refuelling in Singapore and rescued the Indonesian PM and Vice President from house arrest in Jakarta and flew them back to India.
Indonesia had gained independence from the Dutch rule in 1945. Sukarno had become the president and S. Sjahir the Prime Minister. However, in 1947, the Dutch while trying to regain control of Indonesia had house arrested Sjahir.
Patnaik had flown down to Jakarta from Singapore and returned to India via Singapore with the Indonesian PM and VP.
Since I grew up hearing this story from my father, may be I was stuck in the Big Brother time zone while walking into Jakarta on June 19, 2022.
Surprisingly the country is free of gutka and pan stains. While these two are one of the main reasons of a civic mess in India, streets, corners and buildings are devoid of red stains in Indonesia.
It is a nation of smokers. Smoking and coffee drinking seem to be the favourite pass time of Indonesians. In eateries non-smoking areas are smaller than the smoking zones. Rich and poor indulge in this pastime with great religiosity.
Especially in the evening in market areas, men resting on footpaths in meditative state with a lit cigarette in one hand, mobile in another and bikes parked next to them is a common site. Found out that for a majority of them this is their ‘I, me, myself time’ after a hard day’s work. However, roads and footpaths are not littered with cigarette butts. Lighters are used to light cigarettes.
In this nation of visibly healthy youngsters craze for cigarette smoking is quite unnerving. Although I come from a country of beedi and hukka smokers, I strongly feel that decades down the line this habit is going to be catastrophic for Indonesia.
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