Defining the new middle class

By Silvia Werner

JAKARTA (JP): As many analysts have already stated, the development toward modernization in Indonesia is accompanied by the evolvement of the middle class.

It is hoped this steadily growing middle class will bridge the increasing gap between the rich and poor and provide checks and balances for the powerful political and economic elite.

Several articles have already been written about modernization and the middle class phenomenon, but there is still a lot to write about.

The people who make up the middle class today mainly live in urban areas and are characterized by their income, their type of job and their lifestyle. Where rural people and the urban lower class mainly work as farmers, laborers or skilled workers, middle class people are government officials, white-collar workers and small-scale businessmen.

While lower class people mainly entertain themselves with simple pleasures like taking their family to public places such the zoo or the cheap cinemas, middle class people want more.

The increasing amount of money earned is put into bigger houses, better education for the children, household appliances and a car. The food stall gives way to the restaurant, the cheap cinema to Cinema 21, the pasar (traditional market) to the supermarket and the mall.

But if we want to look for other characteristics of the middle class, it becomes difficult. Does the middle class have a higher estimation of arts, stage performances, paintings and music? Or is the political awareness different between the lower and middle class?

Besides a small number of students and intellectuals this seems not to be the case. The main feature catching the eye is the high orientation toward consumerism. The weekends are spent in the mall, which have increasingly been transformed from places to obtain daily goods to recreation spots.

People's lifestyles are governed by economic improvement to be able to purchase these goods. Owning prestigious objects is equated with a happy life. No wonder people are judged by what they own and what they wear. Famous people are beautiful people, and of course, rich.

But is that all? Is the economic improvement of a nation, the emerging of an educated middle class, about owning a Mercedes or a BMW, wearing Gucci shoes or Versace jackets?

There must have been something lost on the way. Aren't there other things in life than dreaming of a new car, a mobile phone or shopping trips to Singapore? What happened to the values, the culture?

While reflecting on the emerging Indonesian middle class, it is probably helpful to compare what processes lead to the development of the middle class in other parts of the world.

In Europe, the middle class started to grow increasingly after World War II. Besides its general features, which might be true in most places, like the income and occupation of its members, the European middle class shaped its identity foremost through its active role in several social movements.

For instance, the one launched by the well-known 1968 generation, initiating the liberation movement, which became the root of the new social movement. At the end of the 1980s, the European middle class also had a very important role in redefining the quality of life, through the environmental movement, the peace movement and other alternative movements.

The processes initiated by the middle class has contributed to societal values and orientation, such as the antimodernization movement which lead to a general back-to-nature orientation.

The European middle class is therefore mainly a cultural phenomena, an entity with a distinct identity not limited to a higher income and consumption pattern. But the reason for the growth of a middle class in Europe and Indonesia is the same: increasing prosperity, a growing urban class, and the nation's transformation to a civil society.

To understand what social role the Indonesian middle class has or could have, it is important to reflect on its shaping identity.

To know where its identity is going, one has to firstly understand where it comes from. It is not only necessary to reflect on tradition, values and patterns of life, it is also important to reflect on how these patterns find their use today. This has not yet been done.

National values like "harmony", "consensus" and "deliberation" are held high. How do these values materialize themselves in the daily urban life of modern society? Have they been transformed on their way from the village to the city? Are there new values emerging?

What certainly shouldn't happen, is that old values and aspects of culture are turned down, judged obsolete or, worse, held high as mere "symbols".

But a society does need guidance on its way to modernization. This kind of guidance should not stem from mere statements, but an evaluation of how far traditional values still find application in rural environments today and in the urban context. What changes are taking place?

A conscious cultural development can only be possible by analyzing and realizing what exists and what kind of process is taking place. This means positive and negative developments, their roots, and possible remedies have to be recognized to prevent traditional values and cultural riches being exchanged for full purses and brand-name products.

Intellectuals, supported by the state, would have to guide this process through critical evaluation, research and discourse. They may interpret customs, values and other aspects of culture and preserve tradition through modern times.

Intellectuals have a very important role to play and a great responsibility. They represent the core of the emerging middle class, which must be supported by the state to function as a player to determine values and social orientation.

The writer is a Ph.D candidate at the Department of Environment and Society, Technical University of Berlin.