Polemics Over Police Perception Index Deemed to Undermine Prabowo's Policies

A study published by IndexMundi, a global organisation that collects and disseminates cross-country statistics, has placed the Indonesian National Police (Polri) in 18th position on a list of police institutions with the highest corruption indices worldwide. Criminal law expert Romli Atmasasmita stated that such a survey cannot be accepted as a valid scientific fact. He argued that the report has a hidden agenda aimed at demeaning and delegitimising the policies of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, particularly in the field of legal reform and the enforcement of national order. ‘IndexMundi claims to aggregate data from various international sources, but the data collection methodology for this police index is questionable among experts in statistics and social sciences,’ he said in a written statement on Monday, 6 July 2026. He firmly rejected the validity of the findings and described them as a political tool to pressure the legitimate government. Romli assessed that the unverified data has the potential to damage public trust in law enforcement institutions and disrupt the stability of the ongoing reform process. Meanwhile, social observer and statistics expert Karyono Wibowo assessed that IndexMundi’s claim placing Polri in 18th position as the most corrupt police institution is methodologically weak and does not meet the internationally accepted scientific standards for public surveys. He identified at least three fundamental weaknesses that render the findings unsuitable as a policy reference. ‘The survey uses a non-probability sampling method, which is a sampling technique that does not provide equal opportunity for every member of the population to be selected,’ he said. With only 296 online respondents, the sample is not representative of Indonesia’s national population of more than 270 million people. The margin of error produced from such a small sample far exceeds the tolerance limits accepted in international academic or public policy survey standards. ‘Respondents were recruited solely from visitors to the IndexMundi website, who demographically tend to be active internet users from English-speaking or developed countries,’ Karyono added. ‘This respondent profile does not reflect Indonesia’s heterogeneous society, and their perception of Polri is very likely shaped by biased international media coverage rather than direct experience in the field.’