Born Poor = Privilege: The Ridiculous Narrative Of Indra Kenz Who Doesn't Seem To Understand Structural Poverty

Indra Kesuma (left) (Instagram/indrakenz)

JAKARTA - The celebrity celebrity Indra Kesuma or Indra Kenz is increasingly narrating that being born poor is a privilege. Even though this has been a mess since the definition of privilege itself. Not to mention the issue of structural poverty which is closely related to privilege, which may have escaped Indra's understanding.

After his statement went viral since last Friday, Indra did not stop voicing his arguments. Recently, through his twitter account, he said he would release a book with the exact title of his statement: Born Poor = Privilege.

Indra argues that being poor is also a privilege because they can experience struggling until they succeed. In contrast to people who are born rich, according to him, the pressure is greater than being born poor.

"Actually, being born poor is also a privilege, you can feel the struggle and be successful. If you are born into a family that is already rich, the mental pressure is greater. If you are born rich, you can't be poor, you have to be richer and that's the hardest thing."

Why was born poor = privilege?? You will understand after reading this book Btw I am currently open bidding for the auction of the first print of this book for humanitarian donations, you can check it on my Instagram. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/Dvp7qxWBPq

— Indra Kenz (@indraakenz) January 24, 2022

About privilege

Indra Kenz's statement has been muddled from the very definition of privilege. If you refer to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), privilege means privilege. If you want to elaborate further, the KBBI explains that "special" is something different than others, extraordinary, moreover. So, in a world where material things are considered as social currency, what is so extraordinary about poor people?

Not to mention the amount. It is common knowledge that there are far more poor people than rich people. Even if you look at the gap between the rich and the poor, in Indonesia the wealth of the four richest people is equivalent to 100 million people.

The form of privilege is not only a matter of material. Privileges can also be relations. The issue of privilege like this has also been widely discussed when President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) appointed seven millennials as special presidential staff.

Netizens are contesting the privileges of the seven people, which many believe is the basis for their appointment. Others, defend. According to them, they have capabilities that are worth seeing. Both opinions are reasonable. The seven are influential people.

Putri Tanjung is the CEO and Founder of Creativepreneur. Others, Adamas Belva is the founder of Ruang Guru), Ayu Kartika (former of the Sabang Merauke Movement), Angkie Yudistia (founder of Thisable Enterprise), Gracia Billy (a young man from Papua who won an Oxford scholarship), Aminuddin Ma'ruf (former Chairman of the Indonesian Ilsam Student Movement). PMII). In addition, Andi Taufan's name was also highlighted as the founder of the financial institution Amartha.

If whether or not something is real is determined by scientific theory, then privilege is a real thing. Sociologist, Tantan Hermansyah explains a theory that explains privilege as a result of interaction between subjects (individuals) who then have functions in the relationship between these subjects.

"For example, in an organization. The group is individuals who agree. When the agreement gets bigger, what we call society appears. In practice, society is a collection of individuals. They are bound by rules," said Tantan in a VOI article entitled " The Gray Crown Named Privilege".

Referring to the concept of agreement, privilege is actually a very vague concept. Its formation is very dependent on the agreement of individual groups (society). For example, an organization specializing in women will be driven home if the event is late. This is a privilege for women. Privilege in the form of protection.

"The basis of privilege can vary, depending on what is agreed upon in the relationship," added Tantan.

Another example of how relative privilege is Tantan describes in another analogy. About how a professor who is highly respected in an academic environment, for example. When shopping in the market, he would be on par with even an immortal student. Thus, the existence of privilege is highly dependent on environmental conditions and situations.

Photos and illustrations (Pixabay, Ilham Amin/VOI)

Structural poverty

The concept of privilege is closely related to the problem of structural poverty. Because, whether you like it or not, privilege can give you an opportunity to spread between groups. As we wrote in the article entitled "Redistribution of Wealth to Overcome Inequality in Social Privilege," privilege as a social fact is actually related to the fifth principle of Pancasila, "Social Justice for All Indonesian People".

The first Professor of Sociology in Indonesia, Selo Soemardjan as quoted by M. Alwi Dahlan in Equitable Information, Development Communications (1997) explained that structural poverty is poverty suffered by a group of people because the social structure of the community does not provide a source of income that is actually available to them. It's about access. About the rights that should be obtained for every citizen.

For example, a farmer can be poor because of a middleman. This can happen, for example, because for the planting process, farmers borrow money from moneylenders, but when harvesting, prices fall because there is a price game from middlemen plus imports from outside.

In the problem of structural poverty, there are many factors that make it difficult for a group to increase their income - if not, it can be said that they are trapped in poverty. That's why people can't suddenly get rich just because they work hard, and people don't suddenly become poor just because they are lazy to work.

Illustration (Photo: Irfan Meidianto/VOI)

Anthropology lecturer at Padjadjaran University, Budi Rajab in his writing entitled Structural Poverty and Ways to Overcome it, explained that when viewed from a structural approach, poverty occurs because of inequality in the control and ownership of production factors such as land, technology, and other forms of capital. Budi said, in the process of relations between individuals or groups when utilizing economic resources, a few people who can own and control economic resources are called elites.

"These elites then consolidate through certain institutions so that the economic resources controlled by them are maintained, even more so. This is where economic inequality begins to appear which in the course of time becomes increasingly sharp," wrote Budi.

According to Budi, the institutional access used by the elite in the consolidation process is, among others, through the formation of interest groups or certain business associations, government bureaucracy, kinship ties and others. "Therefore, in the end, inequality is not only characterized by inequality in ownership and control of material things, but also points to gaps in access and control of social institutions."

"Perhaps, in the context of its relationship to social institutions, in Indonesian social science terms, such poverty is known as 'structural poverty.' Poverty is suffered by a group of people because the social structure of society does not provide opportunities and opportunities to be involved in using economic resources," explained Budi.

*Read other information about SOCIAL, read another interesting article from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.

Other BERNAS