JAKARTA – A decade ago, someone like Mr Dzaky Putra, a 31-year-old public works contractor raised largely abroad and more comfortable in English than Indonesian, would have seemed an unlikely person to engage in politics.

But since 2020, he has been producing in his free time online political content, mostly in English, from memes to more serious explainers, after what he described as a “slow burn” of frustration with the state of the country.

He was approached by popular youth-oriented political site What Is Up Indonesia, which has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, and became a regular content creator there.

One of his more serious posts, a recap of reactions to the controversial revision of the military law in March, received nearly 130,000 likes.

“Speaking up about injustice and speaking truth to power makes me feel better because it’s an outlet to express my frustration and despair,” Mr Dzaky, 31, told The Straits Times.

“Better out than in, as my therapist would say,” he added.

Communications professional Efraim Leonard, 28, had a similar political awakening, which came to a head in August 2024, when he participated in a protest against a proposed change to the regional elections law.

At the time, he was frustrated that many of his friends were apathetic about political issues, said Mr Efraim, who works for Jakarta-based public policy advocacy group Think Policy.

“But recently I’ve seen an increase (in political engagement),” he told ST. “Since the protests of the past year, my friends who are usually not engaged in political and policy issues are at least starting to ask, ‘What is happening?’”

The duo’s experiences highlight how Indonesia’s urban middle class – historically part of the politically inactive “floating mass” cultivated by former president Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime – has become an increas...