Another poll highlisghts discontent with President

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Another survey has found that the public are disappointed with the performance of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration, with poor law enforcement the utmost cause of discontent.

Despite her administration's poor performance that could jeopardize her reelection bid next year, a significant number of respondents in the survey by the Center for the Study of Development and Democracy (CESDA) believed that Megawati would remain one of strongest presidential candidates.

The survey was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,250 respondents in 10 cities nationwide from Sept. 11 to Sept. 13. Judging that the respondents were the owners of the fixed- telephone lines in their respective houses, the respondents were generally grouped into the "middle class."

According to the survey, most of the respondents said Megawati's administration was not serious in dealing with corruption and the enforcement of law. The survey found that only 7 percents of respondents were satisfied with the efforts of her administration in prosecuting corrupt state officials and businessmen.

Public discontent also existed in the economic field. For example, only 11 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the way her administration had dealt with unemployment. Unemployment has been a main concern in the country, as there were 40 million people unemployed last year.

Another source of public discontent was the way the government dealt with terrorism. Only 26 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with efforts to combat terrorism. The remaining 84 percent expressed concern that the government had failed to deal with terrorism, considering that terrorist attacks in the country went unabated.

According to the survey, the Megawati administration won public trust in only two subjects -- the Aceh problem and press freedom.

On Aceh, 39 percent of respondents were satisfied with the way her administration had handled separatism in the troubled province. The success was attributed to the low record of human rights violations there, although the military operation in the province had been going on for over four months.

Besides Aceh, the respondents also praised the Megawati administration for giving enough room to press freedom. Some 60 percent of the respondents expressed satisfaction over the running of press freedom in the country.

According to the survey, the poor performance of her administration would inflict losses on her presidential candidacy next year, but the damage would not be fatal.

The survey showed that support for her presidential candidacy remained strong despite her poor performance. Some 48 percent of the respondents stated that Megawati was qualified to run for president next year.

The survey also showed that Megawati topped the list of favorite presidential hopefuls, only after Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Susilo topped the list with 14 percent, followed by Megawati 9 percent, Amien Rais 8 percent, Nurcholish Madjid 5 percent and Yusril Ihza Mahendra 4 percent.