Asian Insider Podcast

Dreams of Indonesia’s informal workers

Using a makeshift wooden board attached to the front of her motorcycle, Madam Desri Muliati goes around homes in West Sumatra, ironing clothes for people.

ST PHOTO: FILE

Li Xueying

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Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times chats with ST’s global correspondents about life as it goes on, amid the screaming headlines and bubbling crises.

More services are being offered by Indonesians on motorcycles and bicycles.

Mr Subban has a sewing machine affixed to the table in front of his bicycle. Madam Desri Muliati irons clothes on a motorcycle, using a steam iron heated with a portable gas canister.

They are among Indonesia’s formidable force of informal workers that drive the economy, accounting for nearly 61 per cent of the country’s total labour force.

In this episode, ST’s foreign editor Li Xueying speaks with journalist Aqil Hamzah about the services that these workers provide, and why they eschew jobs in the formal sector.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:10 Making ends meet

3:32 Finding them on Tik Tok, Instagram and on WhatsApp

6:07 Getting started during the pandemic; how much do they roughly earn as part of this ‘informal’ economy?

8:46 Challenges for the new Prabowo government

15:30 A reporter’s observations about Indonesia; his first experience of Jakarta

Read Aqil Hamzah’s article here:

https://str.sg/tQXq

Read Li Xueying’s articles:

https://str.sg/iqmR

Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn:

https://str.sg/ip4x