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)