People want 'direct presidential elections'<\/p>\n
Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A majority of Indonesians want a direct presidential election
\nin 2004 and are pessimistic about the government's efforts to
\ncombat corruption and street crime, according to the results of a
\nrecent survey.<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted by a consortium of well known polling
\ncenters in the country between May and June this year and
\nincluded respondents from all provinces, including the conflict-
\ntorn Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
Organizations involved in the survey were the Institute of
\nResearch, Education and Information of Social and Economic
\nAffairs (LP3ES); the Research and Polling Center (RPC); the
\nIndonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI); the Kompas Research and
\nDevelopment Center; and the Center for the Study of Development
\nand Democracy (CESDA).<\/p>\n
Results showed that the direct presidential election was
\npreferred by 69 percent of the 3,440 respondents.<\/p>\n
Some 46 percent of the respondents wanted the candidates
\nproposed by political parties, 19 percent by the People's
\nConsultative Assembly (MPR) and 18 percent want independent
\ncandidates.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) said that the
\npresident and vice president should be elected separately, not as
\none team.<\/p>\n
Researcher Syamsuddin Haris said when announcing the results
\nlast week that the respondents' desire to have separate
\npresidential and vice presidential candidacy was interesting.<\/p>\n
So far, vice presidents elected have been supported by the
\npresident, ensuring that they will make suitable partners and
\nthus help ensure political stability.<\/p>\n
Most major political parties have agreed to the direct
\npresidential and vice presidential elections but propose
\ndifferent models.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
\nthe party chaired by President Megawati has proposed that the
\ncandidates should come from the general election winner, while
\nthe Golkar Party wants a completely direct model, as adopted by
\nsome democratic western countries.<\/p>\n
The survey also ranks political parties which the respondents
\nperceive as having met public expectations. PDI Perjuangan tops
\nthe list with 32 percent, a 6 percent increase from the July 2000
\nsurvey.<\/p>\n
Other major political parties' popularity dropped below the
\nlevels achieved in last year's survey.<\/p>\n
As for combating corruption and street crime, most respondents
\n(62 percent) voiced their skepticism, up from last year's 49
\npercent.<\/p>\n
They do not believe the Public Servants' Wealth Audit
\nCommission (KPKPN) is effective as a body to help create clean
\ngovernance, with 54 percent of respondents believing that the
\nofficials do not report their wealth to the KPKPN honestly.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/people-want-direct-presidential-elections-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}