What Does Flexing Mean? The Lifestyle That Made Doni Salmanan And Indra Kenz Fall Into Prison

Gaya flexing Doni Salmanan (Instagram / @onisalmanan)

JAKARTA - Indra Kenz and Doni Salmanan have been detained at the Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) of the National Police and have been named suspects in a fraudulent investment case. Previously, they were known as crazy rich who liked to do flexing on social media.

Flexing is a phenomenon of new rich people who often show off their wealth and lifestyle to the public through social media to media coverage. One of the content that is selling well and selling well in the media is how the lifestyle of the rich, what their homes are like, where to go on vacation, the luxury vehicles used to show off the distribution of money and expensive motorbikes to the public.

For example, at the end of last year, to be precise in December 2021, Doni Salmanan auctioned his Harley Davidson motorcycle. The auction is opened from a price of 1 billion and the proceeds from the sale will be donated to several areas that have experienced disasters.

One hand clapped, the sound was very loud. The motorbike sold at the desired auction price. Also included on Doni's social media is a screenshot of the donation delivery.

When he bought two sachets of coffee, Doni paid for it in hundreds of thousands of dollars to the seller. He uploaded this generous act on Instagram, he also paid attention to the traveling hawkers he approached. He said, “Hopefully it will be useful. Take care, sir. Wear a jacket, wear a mask. I'll go first."

While the first flexing lifestyle exhibited by Indra Kenz was buying a Tesla brand electric car for IDR 1.5 billion at 3 am at an online shop on January 10, 2021. This was done because he felt dizzy and couldn't sleep. This action then made Indra Kenz's name go viral on social media.

Indra Kenz also has a t-shirt worth IDR 300 million. This was used as a roasting material for Kiky Saputri to Indra Kenz when he was invited to the Indosiar 27 Years Concert.

Indra Kenz also identified himself as the only 25-year-old young man who can afford to buy a watch worth IDR 7 billion. This ability makes Indra believe that he is the richest person in Medan. Indra also said that the red watch was bought with the results of his hard work without harming others.

Like a boomerang, this flexing lifestyle makes people suspicious. How can a young man who doesn't work hard earn billions of rupiah in just a matter of months. An investigation was carried out and there were allegations of fraudulent investment fraud that they carried out. As suspects, they are both now being held in prison.

Meaning of Flexing

Professor of management at the University of Indonesia, Prof. Rhenald Kasali, quoted from his YouTube channel, assessed that really rich people usually want privacy and don't want to be in the public's attention, let alone show off luxury goods.

Because don't think that showing off luxury goods is fun, apart from being a target for criminals, after that, the Directorate General of Taxes will send a tax bill.

He also shared his experience when on a plane sitting side by side with someone who looks very simple, but is still wary that this is a super rich person.

Rhenald recounted that once on a plane with a conglomerate in Indonesia, not in business class but in economy class and when eating at a restaurant, everyone on board was paid for by the person whose appearance and clothes were very simple.

According to Rhenald, typologically, rich people can be divided into three types. First the original rich people whose lifestyle is in accordance with the wealth they have and of course they are not noisy.

These real rich people if they buy things as needed. For example, buying a private plane or a yacht which is only a fraction of his total wealth, to save time and maintain security.

Second, people are rich but their lifestyle is simple. There are two possibilities, firstly, avoiding taxes, secondly, since childhood, they have been accustomed to living a simple life, so that when their wealth increases, their lifestyle does not change.

People like this usually eat chicken pecel or meatballs on the roadside, it's actually more delicious than those who eat at expensive places but it's for the sake of content.

Wherever they are simple and uncomplicated. Behind that simplicity, who would have thought that he has trillions of assets, but not a bit of his wealth is on display.

Third, flexing rich people whose lifestyle is actually one level above their wealth and they are usually very noisy and like to show off.

It's easy to find them, because they are very active on social media and almost all their assets are used as social media content.

The motive for doing flexing or showing off is usually as a marketing strategy because it is being endorsed by a product brand so that the public is interested in imitating its path of success. Who would not be tempted by a figure who is still young, has hundreds of billions of assets.

Therefore, the public must be able to identify when someone is showing off their wealth, whether they are really rich or just flexing and needing social media content.

According to Rhenald, a person's wealth can be calculated and calculated from where the source is. For example, there are people who have assets of IDR 150 billion. So what can you see? How big is the scale of the business, the income from the business can also be estimated per month and per year. Then just compare whether it makes sense or not.

So if there are young people, only about 20 years old, with hundreds of billions of wealth, their business is not detected, if there is a time when the income is not calculated in proportion to their wealth, then there are several possibilities.

First, it could be an inheritance from his parents who were already rich.

If he is also not the son of a rich person but can have abundant wealth, there is a possibility that he is indeed being endorsed by a product to make him look rich.

Or it could be that there are rich people who entrusted their assets to him because they could not be deposited in the bank for some reason.