Students favor E. Timor referendum: Poll
JAKARTA (JP): A poll involving 900 students and 100 lecturers in five large cities reveals that 66.5 percent believe that the best way to settle East Timor's problems is to let the East Timorese decide their own fate.
Asked whether a referendum was the best way for the East Timor problem to be solved, 48.5 percent said "yes", 32.2 percent answered "no" and 19.3 percent did not answer.
Of those who said a referendum would be the best option, 48.6 percent said it would be "in line with democratic principals."
A non-governmental group focused on East Timor, Solidamor, conducted the poll, the results of which were announced on Friday by coordinator Bonar Tigor Naipospos and polling team head Rahadi T. Wiratama.
The poll was held from Oct. 12 to Nov. 22 in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. Four hundred and eighty respondents were from Jakarta, 200 from Surabaya, 100 from Semarang, 120 from Bandung and 100 from Yogyakarta. Respondents were in at least their second year. Five campuses in each city were polled.
The respondents were aged 17 to 24, divided equally between men and women. Of the students, 55.6 percent were taking humanity studies because these departments were where most students are concentrated. Solidamor claims the margin of error is about 3 percent. Researchers said they distributed questionnaires by random sampling while trying to avoid having respondents who were more likely to care or be knowledgeable about the issue.
"We tried to avoid demonstrations and places where activists hang out as much as possible," Bonar said.
He said the poll was the first part of a planned series, which would be followed by a poll on professionals, military members including those who served in East Timor, and East Timorese in all 13 regencies.
Bonar said the poll was conducted "to give a chance to the Indonesian public to voice what they know about East Timor" given the "one-sided information on the 27th province".
Among 12 questions to respondents was one asking what source of information they were most likely to believe. Another asked whether they believed the government's version of the East Timor issue. Sixty-seven percent said they believed information disseminated by parties other than the government; 58.5 percent said they disbelieved the government's version of the issue.
On what were the main sociopolitical problems in the province, 40 percent ticked the answer "human rights abuses."
On who would be the most qualified to represent the East Timorese in negotiations on East Timor, 43.8 percent chose Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo while 15.2 percent chose Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao. (anr)