Most people against sticker system: Poll

JAKARTA (JP): A poll held by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) last week on the city administration's plan to implement the traffic sticker system showed that the vast majority of people opposed it.

YLKI deputy director Agus Pambagio told reporters yesterday that the poll's results showed that 89.98 percent, or 960 out of 1,068 surveyed respondents, objected to the plan because it would only burden them further.

"The bottom line is that they did not trust the government. They did not believe that the government would honestly manage the money derived from the stickers for the benefit of people across the board," said Agus.

Agus was speaking after attending a meeting with the administration's representatives, city councilors and representatives of several progovernment non-governmental organizations on the sticker system yesterday.

He said all of his respondents, most of whom (835 people) had cars, were working people whose offices were on Jl. M.H. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman, where the sticker system is to be implemented.

Under the system, vehicles which enter the two roads from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. must have stickers issued by the city administration. The proposed price for the sticker is Rp 2,500 (31.25 U.S. cents) for a half-day pass.

The poll, which was held from April 29 to May 2, was roundly criticized by a representative of a non-governmental organization, several city councilors and Governor Sutiyoso himself.

Sutiyoso objected to the poll yesterday, saying that the respondents's answers were totally inadequate because the respondents did not understand the matter.

But according to Agus, 95 percent of his respondents said they were aware of the administration's sticker plan.

Agus said that his respondents were qualified citizens with 42 percent of them having bachelors degrees, 25.75 percent having diplomas and 8.71 percent earning masters or higher degrees.

Despite this Sutiyoso claimed the respondents would have certainly approved of the proposed system had they learned about it thoroughly beforehand.

"Those who participated in this poll did not really understand the matter. If ever they knew that it was aimed to stimulate them to use public buses instead of private cars and save money in this time of crisis ..." he said, adding that the poll failed to accommodate people who understand and support the system.

The governor blamed the media for the respondents' lack of understanding on the sticker system. He said the media's negative reports on the issue had influenced public opinion.

"There are a lot of people out there who support the plan. But they did not dare to speak their views because they were afraid to be labeled snobbish," he said.

Ninety-eight respondents, or 9.18 percent, mostly expatriates, supported the system with some conditions, including transparent management on the funds. The remaining 0.94 percent of respondents gave no preference.

A representative from Swadaya Eksponen '66, Rasyid Raniri, agreed with Sutiyoso, adding that the public not only lacked understanding about the system but were also against any attempt by the government to organize their lives.

"Our nation has a bad habit that they like to give their subjective comments about any of the government's plans or decisions, especially if they are a new regulation, without learning about it," he said.

"That's why, it was not strange that the respondents spontaneously showed their objections toward the sticker system in the poll because they viewed it as a new irritating regulation.

"Not to mention their suspicions over the word 'sticker' which reminded them of the troubled SEA Games stickers," said Rasyid.

A city councilor also lambasted YLKI's poll and argued against its validity.

"We all here have thought about the methodology of the survey. How do we know that the poll was really conducted properly," said the councilor who asked for anonymity.

YLKI's chairwoman, Tini Hadad, defended her office's polling, saying that it was conducted scientifically.

"The poll was conducted in accordance with accepted methodology. So the result was accurate," she told reporters as she left the meeting yesterday.

"If the governor says that he will listen to his people's voices, then here they are. The respondents of the poll are those who will certainly be affected by the system," said Tini. (cst)