Trade and treaty partners; or friends and neighbours?

We do all sports well on excellent facilities. They play soccer badly and practise in the street. So how can such two such radically different cultures intersect peacefully?

Governments seem to think the way is through trade and aid. So Australian taxpayers give around half a billion dollars a year to Indonesia.

There's no sign kampong folk know of this generosity, or if they did it would enhance their understanding of the people next door.

Despite the fact that the construction industry is rotten with kick-backs much of that money has gone on building 2,000 schools in remote areas in the belief that better educated kids, particularly girls, will benefit all.

It's hard to argue – unless asking why the Indonesian government isn't doing the job.

Indonesia has budgeted US$8 billion on defence this year, including $1.5 million for new military hardware. The nation hasn't revealed any external threat. The armed forces are used to put down internal separatist movements, like those in West Papua. More money goes to the military than any other government agency.

This year Indonesia is spending US$22 billion on subsidies, most of it on fuel, sucking up 20 per cent of the national budget. Drivers enjoy the cheapest pump prices in Southeast Asia with a litre of standard petrol at 45 cents.

The refusal to scrap the handouts has been widely criticised by the World Bank and Indonesian economists. They claim the money could be used to build the country's crumbling infrastructure that's crippling development.

According to the taxation directorate general, there are 60 million potential taxpayers - but only 20 million are listed and paying taxes. Just half a million businesses are registered out of an estimated 22 million. The government has long promised a massive shake up of the graft-ridden tax system but has yet to deliver.

The Jakarta-based think tank Perkumpulan Prakarsa (welfare initiatives for a better society) reckons the government may have lost half of its tax revenues (nearly USD 60 billion) through corruption and incompetence in tax collecting.

Education and development consultant Robert Cannon has aired some of these criticisms before, but there's been little reaction.

How the Indonesian government gathers and spends its money is entirely its business. A nation that can't even dig taxes out of the big miners and stuffs up its defence budget is in no position to point fingers. But we can select our aid priorities.