Will our middle class disappear?

Will our middle class disappear?

By Meuthia Ganie Rochman

JAKARTA (JP): Many analysts view that a middle class has
steadily developed in such Asian emerging markets as China,
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Popular analysis of this middle
class applies the consumption indicator.

In the above countries, the meaning of consuming activities
has widened from a mere phenomenon of production to a new model
of domination. They are new tools of submission-substituting
coercion, new mechanisms of social integration (albeit from
different aspects they also reinforce disintegration), expansion
of authority and vision of identity.

Recently, consuming activities were recurrently attached to
the middle class. This article aims to explain the likely
consequences of the recent economic crisis on the existence of
Indonesia's middle class.

A German sociologist, Solvay Gerke, conducted research in the
early 1990s on Jakarta's middle class. She argues that the
organizing principle of middle-class development in Jakarta was
based on a pattern of consumption.

Since the 1970s, economic development bolstered various kinds
of occupations and supported the growing capabilities of
Indonesian households to participate in a modern consuming
culture.

However, income alone is not a solid means for class
definition. This modern culture is possible to materialize by
making "lifestyling" strategy, that is, projecting consumption to
affirm one's identity in a "modern" consuming life.

Examples of lifestyling are buying fake branded goods, buying
on credit, borrowing fashion goods from friends or other family
members, and patungan (pooling money). The lower and middle
groups of the middle class, through lifestyling, perform symbolic
consumption.

The real consumption is only conducted by upper slices of
middle class. Accordingly, Jakarta's middle class does not
reflect the real class situation and opportunities as understood
by Max Weber, a founding father in sociology.

The growth of new middle classes -- like bureaucrats,
professional groups and intellectuals -- does not follow the
process of economic rationalization and differentiation. Instead,
it grows through the development of bureaucracy and government
policies.

Gerke's analyses (1995) has problematic aspects. One is that
her analysis on consumption is detached from the forms of social
organizations, only has the "life praxis". This raises questions
on what are the social positions of the middle class and their
influence toward social change.

A study by K.C. Ho, a sociologist from Singapore, describes
the growth of the middle class in urban areas as the outcome of
economic development. He analyzed different occupational
backgrounds of middle classes in some Asian countries.

The richer countries, such as Singapore, Taiwan and South
Korea, have middle classes with highly skilled occupations. Those
countries become capitals of regional headquarters, market
strategy management and middle- to high-tech goods production.
While countries such as Indonesian and Thailand are locations for
assembling, packaging and low-tech goods productions.

Based on professional, administrative, and managerial
occupational categories, and data from the International Labor
Organization, the total of Indonesia's middle class is below 10
percent (before the economic crisis), compared to Singapore 15.8
percent, Japan 15.7 percent, Hong Kong 14.3 percent, Malaysia
11.6 percent, South Korea 10 percent, the Philippines 6.9 percent
and Thailand 5.2 percent.

In Indonesia, the past period of easy bank credits propelled
the growth of enterprises and consumption activities. The role of
government banks that lend money, sometimes without transparency,
also induced a booming private sector that, in turn, facilitated
the growth of the middle class.

This class is depicted as a group that should have
orientations similar to their past counterparts in western
countries: reformation mended, critical toward the state and an
endorsed rule of law as well as democratization.

Based on these characteristics, many analysts view that
Indonesia's middle class is not yet born. Some depictions of the
middle class are as follow. First, the present middle class
engenders from government policies and is, therefore, uncritical
toward it. A critical middle class is still scarce. It is
fragmented into individual groups and organizations.

Second, research conducted by the Kompas daily about 1990
shows that the middle class is excessively oriented to consuming
activities. It rarely bought books, showing a lacking attention
to knowledge development.

Third, the middle class is weak from an organizational aspect.
It seems that it is more the problem of society in general. Dr.
Juwono Sudarsono, now the state minister of environment, once
wrote that what is needed to develop democracy is organizations
that are capable of translating the people's dissatisfaction
within a governance framework.

This view gets support from a prominent study by Margaret
Sommers, which shows that the struggle for civil rights in the
United Kingdom was undertaken by organizations with strong
traditions on rights and responsibility among their members.

The position of the middle class must be viewed with a
framework of governance, whereby the balance between the
interests of the middle class and other classes depends on the
structure of industry, the position of the state (for example,
how far economic claims do not capture its direction), and the
balance between ideas of growth and populism.

Analyses of middle classes in Asia must be redirected. The
aspiration that this class inherently bear characteristics
similar to the West is unrealistic.

In Southeast Asia, the position of governments is,
historically, more dominant. Culturally, people give greater
authority to their government. In this context, it is reasonable
that the middle class does not make a sharp distinction with the
state.

Regarding the aspiration on governance, the primary issue is
not the contraction of state authority and human rights. Instead,
the endorsement of rule of law is expected to have capability to
curtail nepotism and patronage, which are considered more
destructive.

On the other hand, the middle class expects greater authority
for the state to help them face global competition by enforcing
labor law, state-led trade diplomacy, providing facilities and
subsidies and so forth.

It shows that relations between the middle class and the
government is always being constructed along with class's
economic interests. Through this economic interest, the
aspiration on the governance system develops.

Indonesia's economic crisis must have considerably affected
this class in the form of contraction of spending and individual
aspiration about the future.

In financial terms, a part of the middle class must slip down
to a lower class. But from a political aspect, this class has
shown its activities. What is important from its demands to the
government is not about reinstating the former living standard.
Instead, it is trying to renegotiate some foundations of the
governance system. This negotiation now takes form in the demands
made by students, intellectuals, business groups and others. This
ought to be viewed positively.

The new role of the middle class is an important development,
considering the former condition where this class grew. In the
past, social stability was established based on "system
integration". This kind of integration is cherished when most
social groups live together within economic and political
structures, without being much affected by social consensus,
including about equality.

In the past, Indonesian society did not have a chance to build
much of a consensus. Economic growth, though, has yielded well-
being for the people. It is this collective consensus that
constitutes the new role of this class.

The writer is a member of the teaching staff at the School of
Sociology, University of Indonesia.