A command to act immediately or increase intensity — the social equivalent of pressing the accelerator pedal.
When someone says "gas" in Indonesia, they're not talking about fuel. They're issuing a command: move now, commit immediately, stop hesitating. It's the verbal equivalent of pressing down the accelerator — a call to action that expects energy, not contemplation.
The phrase emerged from Indonesian youth communities in the 2010s, borrowing the English automotive concept and stripping it down to pure momentum. In a country where motorcycles weave through traffic as the primary mode of urban transport, the metaphor landed immediately. Everyone knows what it means to hit the gas pedal. The language just made it social.
What makes "gas" particularly Indonesian is how it spawned variants that preserve the country's linguistic layers. "Gaspol" intensifies the command by adding "pol" — from Dutch colonial "vol" meaning "full" — creating "full throttle." "Gaskeun" carries Sundanese phonetic influence. The same concept, refracted through different regional speech patterns, all saying the same thing: whatever you're doing, do it harder.
The phrase peaked virally in August 2025, though the specific trigger remains unclear. What matters is the cultural instinct it reveals — Indonesians value action over analysis, momentum over deliberation, and they've created a vocabulary that pushes each other forward.