Ibnu Hariyanto, Jakarta – the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) has released a survey on the public’s level of trust in the president, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the House of Representatives (DPR). The results show that the majority of respondents trust President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and the KPK more than the DPR.
“Those who trust the KPK stood at 72 percent, in President Jokowi 71 percent, meanwhile the DPR was only 40 percent”, said LIS Executive Director Djayadi Hanan when explaining the survey results at the Erian Hotel in the Menteng suburb of Central Jakarta on Sunday October 6.
Hanan said that out of the three state institutions, the DPR scored the lowest level of trust. “In general, the public’s trust in the KPK and President Joko Widodo is far higher than their trust in the DPR”, he said.
Majority want Perppu issued
The survey also asked respondents about the recently revised KPK Law (UU KPK). Based on the survey results, 70.9 percent of the public believe that the revisions have weakened the KPK.
“If you know about revisions to the UU KPK: Do these revisions weaken or strengthen [the KPK]?”, said Hanan explaining one of the survey questions.
“(As many as) 70.9 percent said it weakened the KPK, 18 percent said it strengthened the KPK, 11.1 percent didn’t answer or didn’t know”, he continued.
Hanan then said that when they asked respondents if there is a need for Widodo to issue a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to annul the new KPK Law, 76.3 percent of the public agreed that he should issue a Perppu.
“(As many as) 76.3 percent agreed, 12.9 percent disagreed, 10.8 percent didn’t know or didn’t answer”, he said.
Support for students
In addition to this, the LSI also surveyed the public’s knowledge about the recent wave of student protests against the revised KPK Law. He said that 86.6 percent of the public knew about the student protests.
The result was that 59.7 percent of respondents had followed news reports about the student demonstrations while 40.3 had not followed them.
“Out of the 86.6 who know about the student demos 60.7 support them, 5.9 don’t support them, 31 percent are neutral and 2,3 didn’t answer”, he said.
The respondents were also asked whether the student protests were being mobilised by people who oppose President Widodo, were being manipulated by anti-Widodo people or whether there were two different groups.
The survey found that only 16.4 percent believed the students were being mobilised by people who oppose Widodo and only 11.8 percent beloved that they had been completely high jacked by anti-Widodo forces.
Meanwhile 46.8 percent said that there were two different and separate groups, the student demonstrations and demonstrations by anti-Widodo people. 25 percent did not answer or did not know.
They also asked respondents whether the student demonstrations had been high jacked for political interests aimed at thwarting the president and vice president’s inauguration on October 20.
“If yes (they knew about the demonstrations), [they were asked] ‘There are those that are of the opinion that the student movement has been high jacked for certain political interests to thwart President Jokowi’s inauguration which will be held in several more days, do you agree or not with this view’”, said Hanan.
“(As many as) 35.2 percent said they agree, 43.9 percent said they didn’t agree while 20.9 percent didn’t answer or didn’t know”, he said.
The LSI survey was carried out using interviews conducted by phone between October 4 and 5. Respondents were selected randomly from respondents to a previous LSI national survey which was held between December 2018 and September 2019 totalling some 23,760 people.
The 1,010 respondents to this survey were selected thorough stratified cluster random sampling with a margin of error of 3.2 percent and a level of confidence of 95 percent.
[Abridged translation by James Balowski based on three articles by Detik on October 6. The original title of the first article was Survei LSI: Kepercayaan Publik terhadap DPR Paling Rendah, KPK Tertinggi, the second was titled Survei LSI: 76,3% Publik Setuju Jokowi Terbitkan Perppu Batalkan UU KPK and the third was titled LSI: Mayoritas Tak Yakin Aksi Mahasiswa Ditunggangi Politik.]
