UNAIR NEWS – “Indonesia is not a poor country at all”. So wrote Anbreen Yasin Khan in her scientific article titled Indonesia Is Not a Poor Country.

Anbreen, is a student from Pakistan currently studying for her doctoral degree at Sociology program, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP).

Anbreen said that in Pakistan, some people considered Indonesia a disadvantaged country. Even when Anbreen said she would continue her education in Indonesia, her nephew asked, why would she go to a poor country to study?

“It was my nephew’s reaction when he found out about scholarship offered by UNAIR for doctoral degree in Indonesia. Actually there are many other comments I received from friends and family,” Anbreen told UNAIR NEWS during an online interview on Sunday, July 26, 2020.

However, for Anbreen, Indonesia is not a poor country at all. Even in the article she wrote, Anbreen said that Indonesia was one step ahead among developing countries.

She said, the reason for writing the article was because she wanted to explain to everyone that Indonesia is actually not a poor country. From her article, there are a few things that support Anbreen’s statement.

First, from the economic sector, Indonesia has $193 billion budget fund for 2020. According to Anbreen the number was quite big. In fact, in her opinion, Indonesia holds a large economic role in Southeast Asia and is ranked 10th in the world.

The education budget for 2020 rose 30 percent from 2015, which was $35.51 billion. Furthermore, she added, as much as 60 billion dollars were allocated to build education, health, water services, and roads infrastructure in rural areas.

She explained that the Indonesian government also prepared $ 21.5 million to stabilize the Indonesian economy and boost the tourism business.

Meanwhile, according to Anbreen, Indonesians are very professional. “The workforce here is qualified and professional,” she wrote.

In the article, Anbreen also revealed, Indonesia has many educational institutions with excellent facilities and qualified professional staff. “My campus, Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), is ranked 521-530 in the world. The staffs are also very skilled at handling work demands, “she said.

She continued, Indonesia also has many malls and shopping centers. In fact there are supermarkets on almost every street corner in Surabaya. “We can buy groceries very easily,” wrote Anbreen.

As an international student, Anbreen was impressed by many aspects of culture in Indonesia, from integrity and ways to introduce local cultures, the use of local languages, to the friendliness of the people.

“Even music, traditional clothing, mutual cooperation, and respects to older people, I am very impressed by all that,” she said.

Previously, Anbreen also wrote an article about Indonesia’s cultural richness. Anbreen said that it made her aware of the diversity of cultures Indonesia has.

“Honestly, in my opinion, Indonesia is a rich country with various cultures, talented people and one of the most developed Muslim countries,” concluded Anbreen. (*)

Author: Erika Eight Novanty

Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh