Students favor E. Timor referendum: Poll
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)