Educated people leasts confident about govt: Poll

JAKARTA (JP): The more educated people are, the less confidence they have in the government and other state institutions, a poll concluded yesterday.

The survey, conducted by the Center for the Study of Development and Democracy (CESDA), also revealed people's growing fear for the future given the prolonged economic woes.

Chief researcher Rustam Ibrahim said in his presentation of the survey's results that panic buying of basic commodities which occurred recently despite the government's repeated guarantees of sufficient supplies was clear evidence of the people's poor confidence.

"The crisis (of confidence) is a middle class phenomenon, rather than a portrayal of our society in general, because it affects people who have better education and the most income," Rustam said.

He said the poll results should serve as a warning to the policy makers, because people's lack of confidence would escalate as the economic turmoil deepened.

"Their status as 'agents of change' will enable the middle class to influence other people to behave in the same manner," Rustam said.

The poll sample was 1,000 respondents chosen randomly in the country's three largest cities of Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan from Jan. 12 to Jan. 28. It involved face-to-face interviews.

Rustam said the survey was aimed at providing a more objective outlook on the crisis of confidence which has become more apparent since monetary turmoil began to shake the country in July last year.

CESDA researchers split the respondents into three groups based on their educational background.

More than 37 percent of respondents with at least a senior high school education said they did not believe in the government's capability to control price increases of basic commodities.

Only 13.9 percent of elementary graduates and 15.6 percent of junior high school graduates interviewed gave the same answer.

According to the survey, 30.7 percent of well-educated respondents doubt the government is telling the truth when it says there are adequate stocks of basic commodities. The figures are 19.1 percent for middle-ranked respondents and 17 percent for the lower-ranked ones.

The poll also unveiled that the lack of confidence in the government has spilled over into law enforcement agencies, legislative bodies and the political organizations.

It said that 38.6 percent of top-ranked respondents were skeptical that the bureaucracy served the public well. The figure was more than 5 percent higher than for the second ranked and two times higher than for the lower-level respondents.

More than 56 percent of the respondents, however, believed that Indonesia was one of the most corrupt country in the world. The figure corresponds to the confession of 78.2 percent of respondents that they set aside extra money to grease the wheels when they dealt with the bureaucracy.

To the question as to whether the police, prosecutors and judges had done their best, 45.8 percent of the more intellectual respondents disagreed, compared to 33.1 percent of the moderately-educated respondents and 25.7 percent of the less- educated ones.

Most respondents (68.5 percent) believed that law enforcers accept bribes.

There was even poorer confidence in the courts as the place to seek justice. A total of 53.6 percent of top-level respondents said they did not believe justice could be found in court, compared to 34.6 percent of the middle level and 28.7 percent of bottom-level respondents.

Almost half of the well-educated respondents also said that the House of Representatives failed to voice people's aspirations.

The ongoing economic crisis has caused 47.4 percent of respondents to feel unsafe in public places such as bus terminals and markets.

Despite the high degree of belief that the past 30 years of development had increased people's wealth, a majority of the respondents (58.5 percent) said that the financial turbulence had dealt them a big blow. (amd)