Middle class seen as too weak to advocate change

By Ati Nurbaiti

JAKARTA (JP): Views of the Indonesian middle class are both optimistic and pessimistic.

The optimists are investors. Credit card promoters and those investing in property, malls and expensive resorts, for instance, are confident that many Indonesians are now rich enough to buy their products and services.

At the recent launch of a new Hongkong Bank credit card, a manager said the bank was focusing on "young executives in the gold group." The bank's credit division manager said the "gold group" has an income of at least Rp 4 million (US$1,682) a month, and few of them have credit cards. Credit card promoters expect the number of new cardholders to reach an average of 1.25 million per year.

"Just look at the statistics," he said. "Twelve large cities across the country and at least 15 percent of the people have large disposable incomes."

The pessimistic view of the middle class has been aired by several scholars in response to whether those who have gained a better education during the New Order government were capable of, or interested in, bringing about a better society and government.

A 1996 study on Jakarta's middle class by the Kompas daily's research division concurred with the pessimists.

A coordinator of the study, sociologist Arief Budiman, said the middle class is too weak to advocate change. They were born out of political stability, he said, and remain dependent on it.

The study -- which surveyed 1,073 respondents, including 970 categorized as middle class and the rest as low-income -- was the first of its kind in the country.

Of the sample, 391 respondents were categorized as "newly middle class," a group which included professionals, managers and supervisors in the banking, property, hotel and restaurant sectors. Their family incomes were up to Rp 5 million a month.

In the next bracket, 303 middle class respondents belonged to the "old middle class" of small company owners earning between Rp 500,000 and Rp 5 million a month per family. The 276 in the "marginal middle class" were white collar employees at non- managerial levels with monthly family incomes of Rp 500,000.

The study concluded that Jakarta's middle class wanted political and social change, but did not want the risks involved. The middle class respondents also placed economic growth above political freedom in terms of priority. A sense of security was important, but most said that economic growth should take precedence over crime issues and even freedom of speech.

"The government knows best," was a statement supported by more than 70 percent of the middle class respondents.

Passive

The middle class in Indonesia has not always been so passive. An educated few were pioneers of Indonesia's independence movement in the 1940s.

But the 1990s have ushered in a different era of skepticism, one that was highlighted by the banning of Tempo, Detik, and Editor in 1994. The magazines received thousands of facsimiles and phone calls expressing disbelief and anger. More than 1,000 people filed requests asking for a judicial review of the ruling which justified the ban, while artists created works to express their criticism.

Although the magazines have been replaced on the newsstands by new publications and little is heard about the banning now, the July 27 rioting gave rise to further criticism and questions.

Did the middle class join with the lesser fortunate to express anger over curbed political freedom?

Political observer Juwono Sudarsono believes that the affluent middle class, in addition to the government, must learn something from the riots. A priority facing the country is, he said, "the urgent need to provide swifter, wider and deeper social and economic outreach to the increasing urban underclass."

Arief Budiman adds that the middle class needs to join with the less well-off if it wants change, though he doubts the alliance will ever occur.

Will the future middle class cling to the attitudes found in the Kompas study?

In the study, the "newly middle class" expressed a distrust of the current educational system, explaining why many of their children were signed up for additional classes or sent to study overseas.

Laksamana Sukardi, a business consultant, believes that the coming free trade era is the only hope for change.

Currently, he said, many business people try to latch on to "power franchise holders" and the right connections. But in the free trade era, said Laksamana, those wanting to do business will have to follow international rules and be more professional and creative.

Anwar Nasution, an economics professor at the University of Indonesia, is optimistic that the middle class will eventually take the initiative and fight for the equality of men and women as well as the rich and the poor.

Consumers

Spending may be the only power wielded by today's middle class.

The power to buy has given birth to a consumer movement, with shoppers now demanding transparency and their money's worth. In local newspapers, more and more letters to the editors complain about being cheated at supermarkets, false advertising, impolite salespeople and lottery winners who fail to receive their prizes.

The heightened consciousness has led more to turn to the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, which has worked with the media to survey certain products and inform consumers about their rights.

Consumers now realize that they can make an impact and that their spending power can influence the development of products and services . But as the study and observers suggest, it will probably take at least another generation for them to use their collective strength for broader social and political change.