Indonesian voters still dream of social mobility

Indonesia is going places, and millions of Indonesians are desirous of upward social mobility as well. As the country heads towards its elections this year - which may well be a decisive turning point in Indonesia's history - the question of social mobility will be on the minds of many voters too.

The question is: With Indonesia's reputation being talked up in the global media as a favoured destination for foreign capital, will this translate into better living conditions for more than 240 million Indonesians?

I write as a scholar who has been studying Indonesia since 1998 and as someone who happens to love that country and its people. Over the years, I have had the privilege of making friends with many of those I have met on my travels across Indonesia.

One of them is Yudi, the becak (rickshaw) driver who takes me around the city of Yogyakarta every time I am there to deliver a lecture or do research. I have known Yudi for more than a decade now, and our lives have grown intertwined in so many ways. I visited his home in Bantul after it was flattened by the massive earthquake that levelled much of Yogya. I was there to witness his daughter's wedding, and we have practically become relatives by now.

But since we first met in 2001, Yudi's life has hardly changed in any meaningful way. During the previous election campaigns in Indonesia, Yudi and I would attend the political rallies of all the contending parties in that great, youthful city. Election season is a boon for Yudi and many poor rickshaw drivers in Yogya.

That is when they - the poor, ordinary voters - would be courted by the political parties and showered with gifts. Yudi and his fellow becak drivers would be gifted T-shirts aplenty, rice, sugar, cooking oil, kerosene and cash donations by all the would-be politicians who come their way.

During the last election campaign, Yudi received more than 10 different T-shirts from 10 different parties, and gleefully noted that he would not have to buy any more clothes till the next election!

Yet Yudi, like his fellow becak drivers, remains immobile - despite the fact that his work takes him up and down the roads and alleys of Yogya every single day. In terms of his socio-economic positioning in society, Yudi has hardly progressed in life in any meaningful way. As he once said to me: "Putar-putar, gak kemana juga." (I go round and round, but I'm going nowhere.)

Yudi's work cycle is dependent upon external variables such as the arrival of tourists during the peak tourist season. He needs to save his meagre earnings to prepare for the lean months when tourists are virtually absent. And should there be any scares or travel warnings related to Indonesia (as was the case after the Bali bombings) then poor Yudi in Jogja would suffer too.

Anecdotal though it may be, Yudi's story is similar to the stories told to me by his fellow drivers all the time, and their condition has hardly changed for the better.

Meanwhile, the fact remains that Yogyakarta is a young city crowded with both state and private universities and colleges, producing tens of thousands of graduates every year. To absorb the latent energy and talent of these young would-be professionals, Indonesia would have to maintain a growth rate of 8 per cent for the next two decades.

That is the monumental challenge that Indonesia faces today, and that is also why the election this year is seen as being crucial to the country's future. It will indicate to what extent the political and economic elite of the country are aware of these ground-level socio-economic realities, and whether they can come up with a plan that will lead to the betterment of the lives of millions of people.

On the other side of the scale are the growing number of Jakarta-based elites who have risen up over the past 15 years and who are now part of Indonesia's small but growing international, cosmopolitan elite. Lifted to the stratosphere thanks to their business skills and political acumen, Indonesia's new elites exude a confidence that is lacking in so many countries.

And in the circle of Indonesia's rich and famous, we now see the attendant signs and symbols of wealth and power to match - Jakarta even has a sports car owners' club, despite its notorious traffic problem.

But the world of the Porsche drivers of Jakarta is completely different from that of Yudi the becak driver. One might even argue that they reside in two different worlds that no longer communicate.

The need to bring these two worlds closer is going to be one of the recurrent themes in the coming Indonesian election campaign, though the nature of Indonesia's populist politics is such that there is seldom deep discussion on the practical aspects of nation-building and economic planning.

Almost all the main political contenders and their parties reiterate the same clarion call to create and defend a strong, proud and independent Indonesia. The rhetoric, however, is seldom accompanied by detailed discussion of programmes and methodology.

Among my academic colleagues and friends at the Indonesian universities I have worked with, there is the lament that this marks the dumbing down of Indonesia's public political discourse, at a time when there is even greater need to focus on the details of state management.

For Yudi and his becak-driving friends however, life is likely to remain the same. Yet again, I will be with him at the political rallies and meetings, where undoubtedly he will be gifted with T-shirts, rice, sugar and oil as he was the last time round.

A sense of awareness, however, has set in for a long time now, and for Yudi and his peers the question no longer is "How much will I get?" but rather "When will my life change?"

That is the question that many Indonesians will ask as Indonesia heads to the polls this year.

stopinion@sph.com.sg

The writer is associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.

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