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or the elite, democracy enables them to cling on and profit from power. For lay people, democracy provides them the luxury to express their thoughts, if not desperation, about the elite, as evident in the crowded social media traffic in response to alleged rent-seeking involving the powerful recently.

The hashtag #papamintasaham (papa asks for shares) became a trending topic in Twitterland following a news report that Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said filed a report with the House of Representatives'€™ ethics council against House Speaker Setya Novanto for alleged attempts to broker a deal with gold mining giant Freeport Indonesia in exchange for shares.

Various memes that summarize what presumably happened in the power circles, have since gone viral, only to spark laughter, instead of frowning, among whoever received them.

'€œThe syndicate of mama minta pulsa [mama asks for phone credit] has been nabbed, now is the turn of the papa minta saham network,'€ one of the popular memes reads.

The report of alleged misconduct implicating the House speaker came on the heels of the police'€™s capture of the masterminds behind a text message scam, which raised up to Rp 210 million (US$15,300) per month from victims who transferred money after receiving a text message saying '€œmother is asking for phone credit'€.

Of course, the two cases are beyond comparison, given the value of Freeport Indonesia shares. But thanks to the memes, the public can easily understand that the two have much in common, which is the very aim of the creative creators.

In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins defines a meme as '€œa unit of cultural meaning, such as an idea or a value that is passed from one generation to another'€. In today'€™s internet era, this cultural phenomenon is simply understood as anything, be it a phrase, an image or a video, that is widely shared voluntarily online.

With smartphones deemed a basic necessity among the middle-class population, ideas people want to share through memes can spread fast. As a medium of expression, a meme is inseparable from social media, and its power to shape public opinion can rival the mainstream media, as seen in the phenomenon of papa minta saham.

In September, Indonesian netizens quickly spread satirical memes criticizing the House speaker for his controversial attendance at a gathering held by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Las Vegas.

A meme is a parody or social criticism that anyone can easily digest. Then, there must be a question about potential defamation, as a meme may turn a person into laughing stock in public.

There has not been, nor should there be, any lawsuit filed against netizens who post or spread such memes, despite the draconian Electronic Information and Transaction Law that could justify such legal action. Memes are part of contemporary culture, and they prove that Indonesian democracy, which was born less than 20 years ago, has already matured beyond its age.