SBY's popularity slumps: Survey

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The popularity of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has dropped sharply over the past month due to people's unmet reform expectations, according to a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).

LSI executive director Denny J.A. said here on Wednesday that Susilo's popularity had fallen from 79.7 percent in November to 66.4 percent in December.

"The public want quick change. The people have been suffering economic hardship for a long time. The longer change takes, the more the public will be disappointment," Denny told a press conference.

Denny said that the public's increasing disappointment was also due to people's skepticism over the appointment of certain figures to ministerial posts.

According to the survey, most respondents gave between three months to two years for the government to solve law enforcement, economic and political problems.

Denny, who was accompanied by LSI researchers Saiful Mujani and Muhammad Qodari, said that there was differences in the level of disappointment between people living in urban and rural areas.

The variety of disappointment is also shown between people with high education and those who have lower education.

The disappointment of people in urban areas is higher than that of people in rural areas, while educational background did not significantly impact on the level of disappointment.

LSI also surveyed respondents with two different questions in September and in December.

Most of the 1,200 respondents, 67 percent, believed that the President would be able to increase people's income and 60.5 percent believed the President could reduce unemployment.

In December, however, only 45 percent of respondents believed Susilo could increase people's income and only 40 percent believed unemployment could be reduced.

In regard to the eradication of corruption, however, there was an increase in public trust, from 60 percent in September to 61.5 percent in December.

"Perhaps, it is because of the intensive campaign on corruption eradication," Denny added.

The survey was conducted on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. The sample was taken using multistage random sampling, including respondents from Aceh and Papua.

Eight respondents were taken from each of 87 villages and 63 cities. The margin of error for the survey was 2.9 percent with a reliability of 95 percent.

Before opening the presentation, Denny told the press that LSI had experience in making accurate quick counts in the presidential election.