Warta Kota, Menteng – A survey by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) shows that 86.8 percent of people do not believe that there is a revival of the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Only around 12.6 percent agree that there is currently a revival of the PKI and only five percent of all Indonesians feel that the PKI’s revival is a threat to the nation.

SMRC Program Director Sirojudin Abbas said that in political terms the PKI revival issue is unimportant because it does not touch directly on the majority of people.

He said that the PKI has a long political and historical definition in Indonesia, long before the 1965 affair, when in legal terms it was dissolved through the Tap MPRS, and since then formal fear of the PKI has disappeared.

“If we refer to the example of other countries, China is a country that really practiced a communist system and has now changed a great deal. So the indications are that communism as an ideology is no longer attractive in Indonesian society”, said Sirojudin at the SMRC offices in Cikini, Menteng, Central Jakarta on Friday September 29.

If we look at the background of respondents that agree there is a PKI revival, he explained that based on political parties there are two dominant groups, namely the Islamic based Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) with 37 percent and the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) with 20 percent.

Based on voters in the 2014 presidential elections, it showed that out of those who agree there is a PKI revival 19 percent voted for Gerindra’s Prabowo Subianto. According to articles in the mass media, some 25 percent of people who believe in a PKI revival are active on social media.

If viewed from a religious perspective, Islamic people are more likely to believe in a PKI revival, standing at around 86 percent.

The survey was conducted on 3-10 September 2017 and involved 1,220 respondents selected using a multistage random sampling method from the entire Indonesian population aged 17 years or over or already married.

With a response rate of 87 percent, the survey had a plus or minus 3.1 percent margin of error and a confidence level of 95 percent. (Rina Ayu)

Notes

Tap MPRS XXV/1966 – Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was Survei SMRC: 86,8 Persen Masyarakat Tak Yakin PKI Bangkit.]

Source: http://wartakota.tribunnews.com/2017/09/29/survei-smrc-868-percent-warga-tak-yakin-pki-bangkit