Habibie failing to win over the hearts of the people

Habibie failing to win over the hearts of the people

JAKARTA (JP): A poll jointly conducted by the University of
Indonesia and Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicated shows that in the first
three-months of his presidency, B.J. Habibie's policies have
failed to win over the hearts of the people.

Only 46.2 percent of the survey respondents found his policies
"acceptable" while a mere 1.1 percent said they were "very
acceptable".

When asked why people opposed Habibie's leadership, an
overwhelming 46.2 percent said it was due to collusion,
corruption and nepotism a la Soeharto.

The second reason was also connected to a similar issue, his
past history and questionable polices while serving for two
decades as state minister of research and technology.

"What is interesting is that only a very few respondents, 0.3
percent, questioned the constitutionality of Habibie's ascendancy
to the presidency. This can be interpreted as meaning that so far
the general public is being mature and open in judging and
allowing Habibie to run his government," the survey's concluding
statement read.

The survey, taken between July 13 to July 16, polled 1,000
people throughout Jakarta by telephone.

Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicated primarily served as organizer and
sponsor of the survey, which was mainly conducted by the
Political Science Lab of the University of Indonesia's School of
Political and Social Sciences.

Respondents were evenly divided in gender, with about three-
quarters of them aged between 17 and 45.

The respondents' backgrounds varied immensely and included
entrepreneurs, employees, civil servants, housewives and
students.

Close to 90 percent of the respondents claimed to be
indigenous Indonesians.

The questionnaire was not multiple choice but was set out in
open question form, the replies to which the surveyors then
classified.

Three basic subjects were covered: Habibie's leadership, the
figure most suitable to be president, and on Indonesians of
Chinese descent who fled in the wake of the May riots.

On the most suitable candidate for the next president, 12.8
percent backed Amien Rais, chairman of the 28-million-strong
Muhammadiyah Moslem group.

Next came Megawati Soekarnoputri with 11.3 percent, Habibie
with 8.2 percent, former vice president Try Sutrisno 5.2 percent
and senior economist Emil Salim with 3 percent.

When asked about ethnic Chinese-Indonesians who had fled
abroad, 73 percent said they should return home while 17 percent
said they should not.

Eep Syaefullah Fatah, head of the school's research and
development department, told journalists when he announced the
results of the survey that a majority of those who said fleeing
ethnic Chinese should not return doubted the sense of nationalism
and their contributions to the country.

Despite the mid-rating received by Habibie, Eep said the
incumbent still had a chance to win next year's presidential
election if he could shed his image of a Soeharto crony.

Soegeng, a former Golkar legislator who switched allegiance to
the PDI in 1992, said the survey aimed at building a
communication bridge about current political issues between
decisionmakers and the people.

"I will introduce polls up to 30 times depending on the
issues. I want to help identify the people's aspirations and to
help the government create policies that accommodate these
aspirations," he said.

He said he guaranteed the validity of the survey, adding that
it had less than a 5 percent error margin. (ivy)