Educated people leasts confident about govt: Poll

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)