People want 'direct presidential elections'
Abu Hanifah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A majority of Indonesians want a direct presidential election in 2004 and are pessimistic about the government's efforts to combat corruption and street crime, according to the results of a recent survey.
The survey was conducted by a consortium of well known polling centers in the country between May and June this year and included respondents from all provinces, including the conflict- torn Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya.
Organizations involved in the survey were the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES); the Research and Polling Center (RPC); the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI); the Kompas Research and Development Center; and the Center for the Study of Development and Democracy (CESDA).
Results showed that the direct presidential election was preferred by 69 percent of the 3,440 respondents.
Some 46 percent of the respondents wanted the candidates proposed by political parties, 19 percent by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and 18 percent want independent candidates.
Nearly half of the respondents (48 percent) said that the president and vice president should be elected separately, not as one team.
Researcher Syamsuddin Haris said when announcing the results last week that the respondents' desire to have separate presidential and vice presidential candidacy was interesting.
So far, vice presidents elected have been supported by the president, ensuring that they will make suitable partners and thus help ensure political stability.
Most major political parties have agreed to the direct presidential and vice presidential elections but propose different models.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the party chaired by President Megawati has proposed that the candidates should come from the general election winner, while the Golkar Party wants a completely direct model, as adopted by some democratic western countries.
The survey also ranks political parties which the respondents perceive as having met public expectations. PDI Perjuangan tops the list with 32 percent, a 6 percent increase from the July 2000 survey.
Other major political parties' popularity dropped below the levels achieved in last year's survey.
As for combating corruption and street crime, most respondents (62 percent) voiced their skepticism, up from last year's 49 percent.
They do not believe the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) is effective as a body to help create clean governance, with 54 percent of respondents believing that the officials do not report their wealth to the KPKPN honestly.