Middle class, democracy link unclear: Scholar

By Endy M. Bayuni

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has a strong middle class, but, a noted Australian scholar says, this does not necessarily mean that they will push for the establishment of democracy like their counterparts in some other parts of the world.

Richard Robison, director of the Asia Research Center at Murdoch University, dismisses the widely-held hypothesis on Indonesia that democratic reforms will only happen in this country when it has a strong middle class.

"Indonesia has a middle class. I think it's a strong middle class and I think it's a rapidly growing middle class. (But) it's a middle class that has to be understood in terms of Indonesia's history," Robison said in a recent discussion held at The Jakarta Post.

On the question of whether or not this burgeoning middle class will push for democracy, as in South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, Robison believes that Indonesia does not necessarily have to follow this path.

Middle classes behave differently in different parts of the world and in different times. To understand the behavior of the middle class in Indonesia, he said, one has to look at the history and relationship between the middle class and other groups in society, including the state.

"For most of the Indonesian middle classes, they still require a strong state. In Indonesia, capitalism was brought by the state, jobs were given by the state, and things come from the state. In Indonesia, rising living standards and wealth depend upon getting access to the state," he said.

Things are changing because of the rapidly-growing private sector, he suggested, with more and more people getting jobs outside the state.

Robison has made the behavior of Indonesia's middle class a central theme of his work in progress, his second book on Indonesia. His first, Indonesia: The Rise of Capital, was published in 1986. He did not disclose the title of his next work, but said he hopes to complete it in October and have it published by May 1996.

In the make-up of Indonesia's middle class, he includes business people, intellectuals, civil servants, teachers and such professionals as doctors and lawyers.

They are varied and their interests are divergent, Robison said, adding that this makes the middle class difficult to define and organize.

He also argued that the middle class, as a group, does not necessarily always want democracy. "I don't think the middle classes naturally want democracy. They want accountability. Representative democracy is one way of getting that accountability."

"And middle classes have been quite happy where some authoritarian regimes have been responsive. They run bureaucracies that are honest, efficient. That's what middle classes really want. Efficient and honest government that generates economic growth. They will want democracy when they find they're not getting that," Robison said.

One of the examples he cited was Singapore. "The civil service in its general daily activity is very efficient and fairly honest ... So the middle classes are fairly happy in Singapore, but you couldn't call it a democracy."

"You always have someone in the middle class who wants democracy. But maybe most of them just want honest and efficient government and rising living standards," he added.

Robison admitted that the middle class will impose greater and greater demands on the government, such as proper education for their children, health and proper services from the government. But these demands, he pointed out, can be met in different ways, and not necessarily through democracy.

"I think that the transition to democracy is in the hands of the very powerful. When they find that it is in their interest, then they'll say 'okay, let's have democracy. We can still be the most powerful within the democracy.' They have to really feel that they're so powerful economically and so powerful socially that they don't need all of these controls."

History has shown that the middle classes can be liberal and conservative, depending on the circumstances, and this could explain the behavior of the Indonesian middle class, Robison said. "For the middle classes to be liberal, they have to be confident that in a democracy the system is not threatening. If you've got a middle class that is frightened, then it will be conservative. When the middle classes become liberal, then it's a confident middle class."

Robison acknowledged that labor becomes one of the important forces in society with the industrialization process, but it is unlikely to influence the democratization process for the same reason that the middle class is not a major factor. "I don't think labor will play a central role in shaping the politics of Indonesia within the foreseeable future."