Middle class weak to set up alliance: Scholar

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's middle class is too feeble and overshadowed by the military to join forces and be agents of change, a scholar says.

Sociologist Arief Budiman said the middle class here was too dependent on the state.

"They are weak, partly because the military here is very strong," he said after giving a presentation on Jakarta's middle class here Thursday.

Arief was commenting on another scholar's statement that only by forming alliances among themselves would the middle class produce a wider penetration of educated people across different sectors, and usher in maximum economic growth.

Juwono Sudarsono, the vice governor of the National Resilience Institute, said Wednesday, out of the population of 200 million, only 2.5 million people have material security. The country needs to have at least 30 percent of its population be in the category of middle class, he said.

The time was still a long way off before we would see professionals, with clout, contributing even discreetly to movements which challenge the dominant state power, Arief said.

He said he believed a number of factors made it difficult to achieve the middle class alliance Juwono hoped for.

The middle class might be able to produce change by forming an alliance with the lower socio-economic class instead, he said.

This, however, could prove difficult because many professionals, who constitute an important part of the so-called middle class, were of foreign descent like Indonesian Chinese and non-Moslems.

It would be more realistic to hope for an alliance between native Moslems and the lower class, Arief said.

Banker Laksamana Sukardi, an executive of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) board of ousted leader Megawati Soekarnoputri, agreed the middle class was weak "because of a power driven economy".

The only hope for change was the global market era when all players would have to follow the same rules, Laksamana said.

Now, people like himself who sought professionalism and creativity as the path to better competition were labeled "stupid" by colleagues, he said.

Many professionals were still too busy seeking "concessions," and relying on connections to "power franchise holders," Laksamana said.

A group of Jakarta-based researchers recently announced the findings of a study on the middle class and concluded that Jakarta's middle class wanted political and social change but did not want to take any risks. Sponsored by the Kompas daily, the study said the middle classes cared more about economic growth than political freedom.

When asked what the most important things in the next ten years would be for them, more respondents cited economic growth, stability and keeping prices down than ideas like "encouraging people to be more critical in their workplace or community," the study said.

Historian Onghokham said the strength of the middle class would be tested at the time of the next presidential succession, because this would have significant impact on their wealth and business.

"Currently, the military is still popular with them because the military guarantees stability," Ong said.

Leading businessman Sofyan Wanandi, however, agreed with Juwono, saying an alliance of the middle class was needed to strengthen their role in both economics and politics.

"They should be the bridge between the very poor and the very rich," he said.

Sofyan said the middle class must be allowed to develop "because they are the backbone of our development".

The growth of professionals in banking, manufacturing, students in expensive private institutions, and others, he said, would be rapid "as long as we can maintain economic growth."

Separately, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said Thursday the whole discussion of the middle class derived from a Western concept.

"It might not be adaptable here.. and could lead to chaos," he said. (imn/anr)