Faded glory.....

As stated on her birth certificate, my wife Isti carries the title “Raden”, for what it’s worth. Her mother, Raden Johanna Nana belonged to the Boeldansyah family from Bandung and her father Raden Achmad Memed to the Kartaredja family from Garut;  Soendanese (Sundanese) “Raden”, old nobility, so to say.

Those were the days, when royalty and nobility had a place in Dutch-Indonesian society and the early years of the independent Republic. Decades have since passed and nobly titles such as “Raden” have lost their meaning.

Only in Bandung’s Cibogo area, where the Boeldansyah family graveyard is located, traces of the family’s old status are still found and family members, including my wife, are still greeted by its residents with the utmost respect and to this day addressed as “Raden”.

Our children, however, can no longer carry the title “Raden” as I am a “commoner”. That means no Raden Robert Putra van den Broek, nor Raden Anna Nadhira van den Broek !

Isti's mother, Johanna Boeldansyah (bottom left) with siblings

Isti's grandfather, Otong Boeldansyah and grandmother, Maemoenah, with children and staff

Indonesia's new middle-class

Is there a new middle-class emerging in Indonesia? The answer is “yes” and it is not that much different from the kind of middle-class we know in, for example, The Netherlands. Of course, the figures (read: salaries and costs of living) are different, but as far as purchasing power and purchasing behavior are concerned, there are remarkable similarities.

Actually, there are 2 consecutive generations in Indonesia’s new middle-class. First, there are the 55-60-year olds, who have completed their home mortgage payments or those who have inherited a family home. Their children have finished their education by now. And some of these 50-60-year olds have retired and are enjoying a small pension. Although, household expenses for water and electricity are quite high in Indonesia, the total costs of living (burdened by a mortgage and children’s education) have now decreased substantially. As most of this age group are small entrepreneurs as well, they seem to manage to add a decent income to their (low) pension.

What you see is that this group is able to enjoy a true middle-class lifestyle, including frequent travelling, both domestically (with the island of Bali and the beach resort of Pangandaran among the favorite destinations) and abroad, helped by numerous low-cost airlines that continuously offer attractive rates to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and other cities in the region. Their homes are featuring a minimum of one flat-screen TV, plus one car and several motorcycles in the yard. Again, as far as purchasing power and purchasing behavior goes, not that different from the Dutch middle-class.

The next generation, children of those 55-60 year olds, are now in their Twenties. They have graduated from university and have just started their working career. In this context, think of urban families, think of 20+-year olds in cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Solo and Surabaya. Early-married couples tend to live in at their parent’s the first year, or two, of their marriage, saving for the next step, which is buying a house or apartment. They go out for dinner and see a movie every now and then, all things a middle-class does.

These middle-class youngsters are each earning somewhere between 2,5 – 4 million Rupiah (US$205 - US$328) a month. Being married and not yet having kids enables them to buy a small property on the outskirts of the city. A 2-bedroom, 80 m2-studio, for example, requires a down-payment of around 2.2 million Rupiah (US$180,4) and a monthly mortgage payment of around 2.3 million Rupiah (US$188.6) for a period of 15 years.  This new middle-class, however, cannot afford to buy a place in the city center, where prices are much higher.

This new middle-class resembles the middle-class of the generation of the late-Eighties/early-Nineties in The Netherlands, which often goes through the same stages in life. In The Netherlands too, “dinkies” (double income no kids) are the most prosperous among young adults. And in The Netherlands too, there are not many couples who can afford to buy an apartment in the center of a city like Amsterdam, but will end up living further away from the city center, towards the outskirts.  And yes, they go to the movies and they travel too.

This article appeared earlier in e-magazine Business Trends Asia

Mudik and Lebaran in Indonesia

This was the first time I was in Indonesia during Idul-Fitri, or Lebaran, when Indonesians celebrate the end of Ramadan, the Muslim vasting month. I was warned that travelling in the days around Lebaran would be hazardous as millions of Indonesians are leaving the cities to go home to their home towns to celebrate the occasion with family members.

This massive exodus is called "mudik" or, jokingly, "pulang kampung" (going home to the village). When American President Obama visited Indonesia in November 2010, one of the few words Bahasa Indonesia he remembered was pulang kampung, he was saying in his speech at the Universitas Indonesia (UI). A big round of applause and laughter followed.

As it is in Thailand during Songkhran (Thai New Year) in April, when millions of Thais are leaving the capital of Bangkok to travel upcountry, the Indonesian capital of Jakarta is virtually empty during Lebaran. No traffic jams this time, but deserted streets. Even the ever-crowded, numerous shopping malls in the city are quiet. The only people visiting the malls are the Chinese, who, largely being Christian, do not celebrate Lebaran.

In 2011, the Indonesian government made the mistake of, at the last moment, declaring Lebaran officially on August 31st, while neighbouring Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore marked a day earlier, August 30th, as the official day which ended the vasting month. This caused confusion and even anger among Indonesians as they had to postpone their planned celebrations with another day.

As a result that year's mudik became even more chaotic as travel plans had to be changed overnight. Popular mudik routes such as Bandung-Garut and Bandung-Subang, which are usually 2-3 hour journies, became 8-9 hour nightmares with an endless stream of cars and motorcycles filling up the roads.

In the days leading up to Lebaran I was intrigued by seeing people offering packages of brand new bank notes for sale along the street. I was told that, as it is custom to hand out money to small children within in the family during Lebaran, one prefers giving new crispy bank notes over old fumbly dirty bank notes. Creative as Indonesians are, for a few extra Rupiahs you can buy packages of new bank notes from these street vendors!

This article appeared earlier in e-magazine Business Trends Asia

Love and marriage in Indonesia

Although Indonesian society has dramatically changed over the past few decades, it still remains a traditional one with a wide variety of rituals and social and culturally-determined customs. Even today, in more modern Indonesia, youngsters struggle with issues related to, for example, love and sex.

In a traditional, family-oriented society like Indonesia, boys and, in particular, girls, are supposed to refrain from sex (read; intercourse) until they are married. The vast majority of Indonesia's youngsters not only accepts, but also completely agrees with, this situation and voluntarily obeys by this rule. The ultimate goal of a love affair is getting married.

This is not specific Indonesian, however, but applies to most countries in Asia. But in Indonesia, predominantly in Sundanese (West Java) and Javanese (Central and East Java) culture, lovers have to deal with one extra condition; Indonesian young women and young men have to respect their elder sibling(s) when it comes to marriage. This means that a young woman or man can only marry when her/his elder sibling is already married. In order not to "embarass" her/his older sibling, the younger one has to wait until the older one is "safely" married.

What is the implication of this condition ? It can have a dramatic impact on the lives of young men and women in Indonesia and may even result in broken-off love relationships out of respect for older sisters. This especially applies for highschool or college love affairs whereby lovers may have to wait for several years, sometimes even a decade, before being "allowed" to get married.

Lovers may have to end their relationship because an older sibling is blocking the way to their marriage. Keeping the other "on a string" would not be fair. Instead, breaking off the relationship will set the other free and create new, better chances, for a love relationship that doés have the potential of resulting in marriage. Occasionally, however, the younger brother or sister does get the green light after having asked the older sibling special permission to marry first.

This article appeared earlier in e-magazine Business Trends Asia

Coming up in April and May...

3 April: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Workshop on “Added Value of Dutch Graduates in Asia”,
at Career Day


18 April: Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam
Training on Social Culture in Singapore


25 April: Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam
Consultant Southeast Asia at Consult Day Asia-Latin America


2 May: Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam
Training on Social Culture in Singapore


16 May: Mead Johnson, Nijmegen
Workshop on Social Culture in Thailand and the Philippines,
in association with the Royal Tropical Institute


21 May: Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion /
Dutch Development Bank, The Hague
Guest speaker at seminar “Sowing the Seeds of Success in Southeast Asia”

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For more information, Business Trends Asia

Culture clashes in HK, Singapore

In economic powerhouse China, an extremely wealthy upper-class has emerged in recent years. International luxury brands have rushed to the country to cater to the wealthy mainland Chinese. This same group of rich Chinese has started to venture out of the country, whether for leisure trips, for medical care, or to acquire property overseas.

Apart from long-haul destinations in Europe and the Americas, places in the Asian region have become popular spots for mainland Chinese to visit. As far as international visitor numbers to the Indonesian island of Bali are concerned, for example, the Chinese are closing in on the traditional source markets of Australia and Japan. And cities and resort areas in Thailand and Vietnam are also welcoming increasing numbers of Chinese tourists. At the same time, Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok have become popular shopping destinations for Chinese.

In particular Hong Kong has seen an spectacular infux of mainland Chinese, whether for shopping or for medical care. Over 28 million mainland Chinese visited Hong Kong in 2011, an increase of 60% since 2008. Mainland Chinese buyers accounted for around 20% of purchases of apartments in Hong Kong, last year. Along with contributing economically to Hong Kong, they also bring their own cultural identity, which sometimes clashes with that of Hong Kong citizens.

A recent trend whereby pregnant mainland Chinese women travel to Hong Kong to deliver their child and thus receiving better medical care as well as Hong Kong residency status, has enraged Hong Kong’s 7 million citizens. Estimates indicate that 4 out of 10 births in Hong Kong in 2011 were from mainland Chinese and the Hong Kong authorities have now lowered (and pledged to actually enforce !) quotas on births from mainland Chinese.

In recent months, there have been several incidents in Hong Kong whereby the culture of the so-called “sophisticated” Hong Kong Chinese clashed with the culture of the “nouveau-riche farmers” from the mainland: quarrels, even fights, in the subway, cynical writings on Facebook and blogs mocking the rude behaviour of mainland Chinese.

A similar culture clash is currently taking place is in Singapore. Although the majority of the population in Singapore is ethnic-Chinese and the island-nation’s political and economic power is controlled by ethnic-Chinese, Singaporeans consider themselves a world apart from mainland Chinese. The recent influx of mainland Chinese tourists, businessmen and students has resulted in anger and nationalism among Singaporeans.

Singapore’s thriving real estate sector is dominated not only by wealthy (primarily ethnic-Chinese) Indonesians, but also by mainland Chinese, who are buying exclusive US$500,000- 1,000,000+ condominiums.

In May 2012, a mainland Chinese businessmen crashed his brand-new Ferrari into a taxi, thereby killing himself and 2 others. This accident outraged Singaporeans and further fueled the anti-mainland Chinese sentiment in Singapore. Harsh anti-Chinese comments were posted on social media. Other voices in Singapore are expressing their concern over the increasingly heated anti-mainland Chinese debate in the country.

Although Singapore is an immigrant society with third-, or fourth generation immigrants from China and India, the cultural divide between the Singaporean Chinese and the newcomers from mainland China is deep.

This article appeared earlier in e-magazine Business Trends Asia

Asia's power women offer false hope

Asia's high profile powerful women have often been considered by their country's poor as their saviour, as the ones who will tear down corrupt institutions and modernize the country, bringing economic prosperity for all and allowing the poor to break the cycle of poverty which often entraps families for generations in destitute circumstances.

Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Yinluck Shinawtra in Thailand, Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia and Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the Philippines. All had an aura of fairness, honesty, held the promise of change for the good and a clean government when they assumed power for the first time. With the exception of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar who has not held official power, all the female leaders of their countries failed to live up to promise and hope instilled on them by their constituents also falling into the trap of corrupt government politics themselves, achieving nothing for their people and country.

But these women were portrayed as something they were/are not: fighters for the common people. The Asian Power Women all belong(ed) to their country's power pinnacle class.

Benazir Bhutto was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a former prime minister and president of Pakistan and founder of the Pakistan People's Party that Benazir Bhutto led from the age of 29. Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan's prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996. Benazir Bhutto's paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto. Originally of Sindh, Shah Nawaz Bhutto became the prime minister of the princely state of Junagadh in what is now Gujarat State in India. During his services Shah Nawaz Bhutto had been given large tracts of land in Sindh Province and after the partition of British India into India and Pakistan, he moved his family there, being one of the wealthiest and therefore most influential, land owners.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San (real name: Htein Lin, born on February 13, 1915), founder of the modern Burmese army, of Burma's Communist Party and one of the negotiators of Burma's independence in 1947. Aung San was the son of a lawyer and born into a family active in the anti-British resistance movement, dating back to the attachment of Burma to the British Empire in 1886. Aung San Suu Kyi comes therefore from a very well established political family.

As a small group of tourists found out in December 2011, when stepping on a boat to float down the Irrawaddy River surrounded by the UNESCO-classified temples of Pagan. The boat guide pointed out two huge buildings arising along the river shore, in the middle of nowhere. According to the guide, the pompuous villa belonged to a family member of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other high-rise building was being constructed by an army general. When the tourists asked the guide what he thought of all this, he shrugged his shoulders, acknowledging the fact that only the rich and connected can engage in projects like this.

Yingluck Shinawatra who became Thailand's (first female) prime minister in 2011 is the youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, one of Thailand's wealthiest people and a former prime minister himself. His third time in office ended on 19 September 2006 when a military coup d'état ended civilian rule. The Shinawatra family appears not to belong to the traditional power classes of Thailand. Thaksin has always promoted an image of himself as an outsider, a self-made man with no ties to the old upper classes. He became prime minister on a platform of some populist policies e.g. subsidies for rice farmers in the northeast of the country. His enormous popularity among Thailand's common people, based on creating awareness that they have a voice and rights too, allowed him to create a formidable personal power base, totally separate from the traditional power classes: the nobility, the armed forces and the Teochiu business elite.

But Thaksin's image is a PR exercise, aimed at attracting the vote of Thailand's increasingly vocal working class. The Shinawatra family is Hakka and not Teochiu as the majority of Thailand's ethnic Chinese population. The Teochiu run Thailand's economy and the Hakka Shinawatra family are not part of this inner circle. But this does not mean that they are outsiders. As detailed in article Thaksin: from Rich to Richer, the Shinawatra family has very well established ties with Thailand's aristocracy, dating back to the reign of Rama IV in middle of the 19th century and has been part of Thailand's power elite for many generations.

Thaksin Shinawatra's political agenda was and still is aimed at gaining power at the expense of the Thailand's traditional ruling classes. This will also support their commercial interests. Yingluck Shinawatra is Thaksin's replacement but she has her family's and brother's interests at heart. Her government's policies of supporting Thailand's poor and working class are means to an end (i.e. creating and cementing a political power base) and not based on a heartfelt desire to create a more just society.

Corazon Aquino was the Philippines's first democratically elected president after the removal of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Corazon Aquino was the widow of senator Benigno Aquino Jr., Marcos' political opponent who was murdered on Marcos' instructions upon his return to the Philippines from exile in the USA in 1983. Corazon Aquino became the leader and the public face of the people's revolution against Marcos that drove him from office. With her friendly and motherly appearance she became to many Filipino's the mother of the nation who only had the best interests of poor and common Filipino's at heart. And as a mother she would protect her children from poverty and abuse and create a country in which all people could have a decent living and the rich would not treat the poor as their servants without any rights.

But Corazon Aquino's maiden name is Cojuangco which is one of the Philippine's richest families, with enormous commercial interests and political cloud dating back to colonial times. The family is one of the largest land owners of the country and as such any land reform transferring land ownership to poor farmers is directly opposed to the Cojuangco's family interests. In all fairness Corazon Aquino did implement a radical land reform programme which affected also the Hacienda Luisita, a 6,435 hectare sugar cane plantation and one of the largest estates in the country and owned by the Cojuangco family. In the end Corazon Aquino was not able to beat her own family and establish land reform on their own plantation. Since 2004 the Cojuangco/Aquino family is even engaged in a direct battle with its plantation workers which has involved strikes, blockades and even lethal confrontation.

One of Corazon Aquino's successors, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was also swept to power on the wings of popular. Originally a Vice President of the Philippines under then President Joseph Estrada (1998 - 2001) she turned against him when he came under investigation and eventually impeachment for massive corruption. During the so-called EDSA II revolution of January 17-20, the popular revolt against Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as president. She promised a continuation of the investigations against Joseph Estrada, clean government and a fight against corruption.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal, president of the Philippines in the years 1961-1965. The Macapagal family belong to the Philippine's traditional political power structure together with the Magsaysay and Aquino families. Maintaining traditional power structures is in their interest, not political reform and clean government. Gloria Macapagal was eventually also confronted with corruption charges against herself focussing on election fraud in 2004, as well as her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, who supposedly abbused his position of "First Gentleman" for his own financial gain.

This article appeared earlier in e-magazine Business Trends Asia