Study reveals middle class wants change, but not risk

Study reveals middle class wants change, but not risk

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta's middle class wants political and
social change but does not want to take any risks, a study has
found.

They care more about economic growth than political freedom,
researchers from the Kompas daily concluded.

They want a stable, harmonious family and overseas travel.
Most have more than one income source and bank savings. Few
participate in the stock market.

Many invest in gold and participate in arisan, or savings
lotteries, in their extended families and communities.

When asked what the most important things in the next 10 years
would be more said economic growth, stability and keeping prices
down, rather than ideas like "encouraging people to be more
critical in their workplace or community," the study said.

This was the response of more than 76 percent of people
surveyed in three middle class groups.

The groups were family business owners, professionals and
executives, and white collar workers.

However professionals and executives -- with a monthly family
income of Rp 1 million to Rp 2 million -- was the most involved
in social movements, the study found.

Percentage

The percentage was still small. The green movement was the
most popular but only 11.8 percent of professionals and
executives were involved in the movement. A huge 84.6 percent,
gave only moral support, the study found.

"Many in the middle class want less state intervention... but
they don't want to be involved in risks. Yet they feel they're
the spearhead of democracy," one of the researchers, Bestian
Nainggolan, said.

"It seems they just want the parts which benefit them,"
sociologist Arief Budiman, one of the study's coordinators, said.

Arief said the study from Kompas's research division was the
first of its kind in Indonesia. It is part of a study on
Southeast Asian Middle Classes in Malaysia, Thailand, the
Philippines, and Vietnam.

Of 1,073 Jakarta residents surveyed, 298 were from the "old
middle class", or capital owners of family businesses, 394 were
from the "new middle class", the professionals and executives,
and 272 were the "marginal middle class," or non-managerial
employees.

The remaining 109 people were lower class workers.

The middle class rated high crime rates, unemployment, and
pollution as more serious problems than a lack of democracy.
Others issues cited were high housing prices, pornography,
prostitution, and lack of access to good education for children.

Sixty-six percent of the "new middle class", approved of the
establishment of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee.

But 71 percent of them, like the other classes, believed "the
government knows best." Most agreed all political organizations
threatening stability should be muzzled.

Regarding elections, 53 percent of professionals refused to
answer which party they would support in the coming election.
Those who answered mostly supported Golkar.

The new middle class was also found to be tolerant of ethnic
and religious differences, as indicated by the many mixed
marriages among them.

The study, to be completed next year, is coordinated by
sociologist Hsian Huang Michael Hsiao of the Academia Sinica in
Taipei, Taiwan, and two other sociologists at the Seoul National
University, South Korea, and the University of Hawaii. (anr)