Another poll highlisghts discontent with President
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.