Socialization: An important factor of redenomination success in Indonesia

Abstract

Redenomination discourse has become a concern, again, in line with the instructions of the Indonesian President to the Finance Minister to re-socialize the program to the society. Socialization is important given the Indonesian society is geographical, demographical, and psychographic heterogeneous. The heterogeneous society is potential to have a low understanding level of what and how redenomination would be applied, while the ignorance would trigger rush and hyperinflation. Hence, a research is needed to acknowledge the people understanding about redenomination. This is a door knocking survey which involved 600 respondents in Semarang, Kudus, and Banjarnegara as representatives of Indonesian society with diverse backgrounds. The data were processed using Cramer's V Test and Crosstab. The results show that Indonesians' understanding of redenomination is low, especially the people living far from the government centers. In addition, educational factors and occupations are the main factors that determine the level of understanding on redenomination. There is an indication that the higher the education, the higher the public understanding of redenomination. Similarly, people with the Teachers/Lecturers profession, working in the formal sector, and have managerial positions, have a better understanding of redenomination, than people who are not working or working in the informal sector.