Indonesians afraid to criticize officials, poll finds

JAKARTA (JP): A great number of Indonesians believe government officials should be open to criticism, but not all of them dare to do the criticizing, a poll has found.

The Jakarta-based Center for the Study of Development and Democracy (CESDA), in a survey conducted between June and July in Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan, found that a whopping 93.2 percent of respondents said officials should stand to be corrected.

When pressed, however, only 62.2 percent of the 1,000 respondents described themselves as "brave" or "somewhat brave" when it comes to expressing their opinions or criticizing officials.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they are "rather afraid" or "afraid" to make criticisms of officials.

CESDA researchers said that a more thorough study would be needed if they were to discover why people say officials need to be corrected yet are afraid to do the criticizing themselves.

"That's one weakness in the survey," the research center's Shobirin Nadj. said. "This is only a poll, as we intended it to be, and it's less than representative."

The picture turned out to be better when it comes to speaking one's mind to a limited audience, such as at a meeting of village officials. A total of 80.7 percent of respondents said they would be able to express their agreement or disagreement on certain issues at such meetings.

The poll was conducted in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's independence and was designed to measure the respondents' opinion about gains made by the nation since 1945.

The employed both interviews and the completion of questionnaires, while the sampling of 500 men and 500 women were chosen at random.

The number of respondents in Jakarta was 600, in Surabaya 250 while in Medan the number of people involved in the survey were 150.

A total of 58.7 percent respondents said that "the meaning of independence was freedom, either freedom as a community member, as an individual, or as a nation". Some 28.5 percent thought the significance of independence was "life improvement, in terms of economics, society or culture."

No less than 95.5 percent of respondents said they have "tasted the results of independence", either in the form of more educational opportunities, a more democratic political climate, or a feeling of security.

Only 2.5 percent respondents said they have not been able to enjoy the fruits of independence because they still experience job scarcity and because they feel that justice is still absent in their life.

According to Rustam, 71.5 percent respondents "have positive views about the role of the government or local administration in handling development projects in the interests of the public".

"Of all respondents, 18.7 percent said that the government pays less attention or none at all to the interests of the people," Rustam said.

The figure, he said, "is much better, compared to the respondents' opinion about legislators". "Only 58.5 percent think that members of the House of Representatives or local legislative councils pay attention to the interests of the public," he said.

He said that the difference may have arisen because "the roles of the legislators are somewhat more abstract in nature, compared with the role of the government, which is more concrete and produces visible results."

The poll revealed that the public feels that it is urgent for the government to establish justice and improve welfare.

"The government should also improve public service, provide more educational facilities, fight corruption and crime, stabilize prices, simplify procedures for obtaining various permits and control foreign debt," Rustam said.

Regarding the role of the mass media, the poll discovered that the state-owned TVRI television station is losing out in competition with the five private stations.

"It's losing viewers," Rustam said.

In a 1993 poll, some 34 percent respondents said they watched TVRI; the figure was down to 24 percent in 1994; while this year only 10.7 percent of all respondents said they still watch the channel.

The first private television station, RCTI, is the favorite channel, with 33.3 percent of respondents watching its programs every day. (swe)