“Bye Malaysia” Indonesian Media Mocks Nearby Nations, Proud Of The Country’s Economic Recovery

An Indonesian news portal recently poked fun at the Republic’s neighbouring countries after the country’s economy soared past them and successfully returned to its pre-pandemic performance. The popular Indonesian portal, detik published an article on its finance section with a controversial title that seems to mock nearby nations, especially Malaysia and Thailand while mooting Indonesia’s outstanding economic recovery.

Published last Friday (10 February 2022), the article carries a rather ‘naughty’ title in Bahasa Indonesia, which is “Bye-bye Malaysia-Thailand, Ekonomi RI Sudah Pulih Duluan”, or translated as “Bye Malaysia-Thaialnd, the Republic of Indonesia’ Economy Recovered Faster”.

In the article, the Indonesia portal commends the nation’s economy recovery in which it is now amongst the very few countries in the world that have had their economy surpass the level they were are before the Covid-19 pandemic which includes Singapore, United States of America, South Korea and China. The article then quoted the nation’s Finance Ministry which confirmed the matter, asserting,

“Developed nations in the world such as the United States have surpassed its pre-pandemic economic performance by 2.1%, meanwhile Indonesia now has exceeded our economic performance in 2019 by 1.5%…”

Furthermore, Indonesia’s Finance Ministry also confirmed that compared to other neighbouring nations, only Singapore and Indonesia have recovered their economy to the performance it have prior to the pandemic. Other nations such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are still way below the economic level that they had attained prior to the pandemic.

Indonesia recorded an incredible economic recovery since 2020 which saw its population living below the poverty line reduced to single digits from 10.2% to 9.7%, although the country is yet to achieve its pre-pandemic statistic of 9.2%. Furthermore, the country’s inequality level was recorded as 0.381 in 2021, almost returning to its pre-pandemic level of 0.380.

Unemployment in Indonesia has also dropped from 9.77 million in 2020 to 9.1 million in 2021. Meanwhile the percentage of unemployment has also dropped from 7.07% in 2020 to 6.49% in 2021.

What do you guys think of the whole situation? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Also read: M’sian Employers Federation: Raising Minimum Wage To RM1,500 Will Derail Economic Recovery