Indonesians happy battlers: Survey

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While media reports often focus on doom and gloom -- price hikes and the rampant corruption, poor investment climate and widespread social injustice and poverty in the country -- a recent national survey made public on Tuesday revealed that most Indonesians are a happy, content lot, who are positive about the future.

Conducted by the U.S.-based International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the survey showed that 81 percent of Indonesians assessed their family's quality of life as good or very good.

The generally positive view was prevalent throughout society and even 73 percent of those at the lowest socio-economic level said their quality of life was good.

The vast majority of Indonesians (90 percent) also said that they had maintained or improved their quality of life during the past year.

There was also an increased optimism about future conditions, as 47 percent expected their family's quality of life would be better in a year's time, compared to 31 percent in 2003 and 38 percent in 2002.

The survey was conducted between Feb. 7 and Feb. 11, through face-to-face interviews with 2,020 respondents in 33 provinces, including the conflict areas of Aceh, Maluku and Papua.

Using a multi-stage random sampling method, the survey's sampling of error was estimated to be 2.2 percent at 95 percent confidence level.

Aside from questions about the future, the survey covered eight other areas: An assessment of Susilo's administration; opinions on state institutions and leaders, women in parliament, political parties, electoral bodies, the Constitutional Court; regional and local representation and the media.

However, the survey was carried out before the government's decision to increase the fuel prices, which would likely have affected the result.

Since 2001, economic problems have been regularly mentioned by Indonesians in surveys as their main concern.

The recent survey showed that 55 percent of Indonesians cited the increased prices of basic needs as the country's biggest problem, followed by the difficulty to find work (26 percent).

One issue that has lost resonance since the 2003 survey was the perceived lack of security in the country fingered as the nation's biggest problem, which dropped from 13 percent in 2003 to 2 percent this year.

Forty-eight percent of those surveyed felt safer or much safer compared to last year, including those in the conflict areas of Aceh, Maluku and Papua. In 2003, only 27 percent felt this way.

The IFES said one reason for the vastly improved perception of security issues could be the fact that Susilo's government was generally perceived as stronger on security issues than that of his predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

All in all, almost two-thirds, or 64 percent, of all Indonesians think that the country has been headed on the right track since the 2004 elections.

The most frequently mentioned reasons were the serious efforts from the government to fight corruption (43 percent), improve the security situation (18 percent), economy (13 percent) and a more honest government (12 percent).