Is Covid-19 terminal for the rising middle classes of Malaysia and Indonesia?

Before Covid-19 hammered the Malaysian economy, Kuala Lumpur native Jeremy Johnson, 43, made 7,000 ringgit (US$1,670) a month as the general manager of a coffee company and even had a car as part of his work benefits. His family of six were firmly entrenched in the middle class – what Malaysia calls the M40, for the 40 per cent of households considered ‘middle income’, defined as those earning 4,850 ringgit to 10,959 ringgit a month.But movement restrictions forcing people to work from home and…