Amri Amrullah, Jakarta – The Denny JA Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) has released its latest survey on Political Parties and the Growth of Pro-Islamic Law [Voters].
In the survey, it is explained that there has been a growth in the number of pro-Islam law voters – including in Islamic based political parties such as the United Development Party (PPP) and the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) – which are the basis for the pro-Islamic law vote.
LSI researcher Ade Mulyana revealed that out of all the respondents surveyed, only 12.5 percent of voters were pro-Islamic law, while 77.8 percent of respondents do not agree with the implementation of Islamic law.
But Mulyana claims that the figure of 12.5 percent is an increase on previous years, where in 2012 it was only 5.6 percent and in 2017 only 9.3 percent supported Islamic law.
"Out of all of the political parties there are two, namely the PKS and the PPP which have many pro-Islamic law voters. Where in the survey it can be seen that the PKS has 18 percent and the PPP 14 percent of supporters who are pro-Islamic law", said Mulyana in his explanation on Tuesday November 1.
Mulyana said that the increase in pro-Islamic law supporters in the 2022 survey is not something that is dangerous. This is because in a democratic country as big as Indonesia there will always be those who want an Islamic state. According to Mulyana however, close attention needs to be paid to the rate of growth in this figure.
Mulyana explained that based on education levels, the lower the education level is the higher the pro-Islamic law vote is. Likewise, the lower their income, the more pro-Islamic law people are. Uniquely, urban poor groups are bigger supporters of Islamic law than those who live in rural areas.
"Where 17.8 percent of those who live in cities are more pro-Islamic law, while in the villages it's [only] 10.4 percent", he explained.
Mulyana explained that the survey involved 1,200 respondents and the data was gathered from face-to-face interviews using a questionnaire. The margin of error was 2.9 percent the data was collected between September 11 and September 20, 2022.
"The conclusion is that an increase as occurred in the number of people who want to establish an Islamic state, now this is a warning for us all. Hopefully later during the contest or legislative and presidential elections, religious issue commodities such as this will not be taken up as in previous years", he said.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Survei LSI Denny JA: Pemilih PKS dan PPP Banyak yang Dukung Syariat Islam".]