Middle class missing in the news

Middle class missing in the news

By David Harries

JAKARTA (JP): Where has the middle class gone? Until July this
year it was unusual if an article on Asian politics, economic or
social conditions did not refer to something "middle class". But,
since the implosion of the Thai bath opened the race in the fall
from grace of the Asian economic miracle, "middle class" has been
unheard and unheralded.

How could an element of society which, since well before the
end of the Cold War, was almost universally touted as the
foundation of a bright and fair future, suddenly become a non-
issue?

How could the engine of economic growth, the flag bearer for
democratization, the bridge between rich and poor, and the savior
of the common man in the battles between politics and commerce
become a has-been?

How could the "middle class" disappear just when the economic
and political crises in the region forced societies to cry out
for the very characteristic attributed to it?

Current history books such as the Far Eastern Economic Review
compete with daily situation reports in publications such as the
Asian Wall Street Journal and this newspaper to present the best
stories on the extremes of the human spectrum.

We are told that the rich and powerful institutions and
individuals are arguing among themselves over the ruins of houses
of cards they had built, or begun to build, on mountains of dry
sand.

There is much on looking for ways to escape as much blame and
loss as possible from the other end of the line. We hear that
those living in poverty are the most likely to benefit least from
the region's collective economic meltdown and the spreading
fallout.

Indeed, we are told that, "failing some miracle" their numbers
are expected to grow and the time their aspirations are blocked
is extended.

Perhaps the reason we now hear so little from and about the
"middle class" is that, in Asia, it was not what it was cracked
up to be. In much the same way the "economic miracle" was called
to account, the same realities have exposed the "middle class" as
far less a significant actor and influence on the region's
evolution than was hoped and broadcast.

What seems to be the case in Asia is that "middle class" is
far less "middle" than "just over" the poverty line.

In developed nations, the middle class unevenly spans the
whole space between those having nothing and those having
everything.

The very poor face few insurmountable obstacles to exploiting
an opportunity to become very rich. However, in developing
countries, the middle class is still less "thing" than activity,
it is a struggle to avoid sliding back into poverty.

This is especially so in Asia where the pace of economic
change has far outstripped that of politics, convention and
culture, producing a gap between rich and poor which continues to
get both wider and deeper.

The economic strugglers, and stragglers, are far from the
corridors of power and not always a priority in the minds of the
individuals who walk them. People outside this region make more
of the status and powers of the "Asian middle class" than do its
members, yet another case of distant academics over-emphasizing
theory and illusion.

In each Asian country, the "middle class" and its conditions
are unique. There is very little common ground, or understanding
or knowledge, between, say, those in Brunei and Laos.

But all demonstrate one governing characteristic, a set of
concerns that is visceral. These include finding and keeping a
satisfying job compatible with ones' training and education,
having enough money for the family to enjoy a dignified level of
food, shelter, school, mobility and togetherness, and knowing
that the bank with ones meager savings will be open next week.

Although Asian "middle" classes are only slowly coming to
realize it, globalized competition increases their challenge to
transform their circumstance from one of struggling to avoid
poverty to striving for a better life.

And in many countries, until or unless the more advanced
levels of education are significantly improved, crucial elements
of an ability to escape the pull of poverty will be weak and
uncertain. Meanwhile, the rich go abroad to good universities and
return to widen the prosperity gap.

The struggle to escape a return to poverty leaves "middle"
classes in Asia with little time and less energy for engaging in
esoteric issues like democratization and international financial
reform.

As long as they are not prevented from struggling, the
struggle is more than enough to occupy them, and honorable enough
to satisfy them. Revolt and rebellion is far more likely to come
at the hands of those occupying the extreme ends of the spectrum,
from those who know they have nothing to lose if they do revolt,
or from those who think they will lose much of what they have if
they do not.

For certain, a "middle class" should be put back on the agenda
in Asia. Not a single country of the region, or probably
anywhere, can today afford to have more of their citizens living
in poverty, wherever whoever draws the line.

Second, peace and stability depend on some form of tolerant
relationship between the rich and the poor and between market and
political systems.

Third, if there is to be enough money to pay for the peace to
contain enough of the differences, disputes and misunderstandings
in the world, economic growth must continue. More and more people
must therefore be gainfully employed consumers.

The poverty-stricken certainly cannot take that role, and the
rich and powerful will never be numerous enough to carry the
whole load, however hard some try.

Fourth, history has shown that when a significant element of
society with the knowledge, skill and willingness to work felt it
was doomed to being "never-will-haves", their desperation and
outrage can wreak havoc on the neighborhood, and all lose.

Now that knowledge is the ultimate, useful power and is
unconstrained by national boundaries and physical barriers,
skills are global goods and willingness an individual choice. In
these circumstances, the "middle class" could perceive itself as
a "never-will-have" group, and represent a particularly
threatening modern phenomenon.

Asia needs real "middle" classes so the poverty-stricken can
realistically aspire to something for their children, and which
business and political elites will accept and encourage. It is
time to get the "middle class" back into the history books and
situation reports.

The writer is an observer of ASEAN affairs.