Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – A recent survey revealed that a majority of the public believes that Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum was involved in the Southeast Asian Games bribery scandal. The Party, however, still refuses to remove him from his chairmanship.
According to the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), a majority of respondents believe that Anas, along with four other key Democratic Party politicians – Muhammad Nazaruddin, Angelina Sondakh, Andi Mallarangeng and Mirwan Amir – were involved in the case.
"As much as 62.6 percent of respondents answered: They know about the SEA Games bribery scandal, and 57.8 percent believed that the case's primary suspect, Nazaruddin, had been cooperating with other politicians," LSI researcher Barkah Pattimahu said during a press conference on Sunday.
LSI conducted the survey from Jan. 12 to Feb. 2, involving 1,200 respondents from across the country's 33 provinces. It used a multistage random-sampling method in direct interviews. The approximate margin of error was 2.9 percent.
Nazaruddin is currently on trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) recently named Angelina Sondakh a suspect in the case and has banned her from leaving the country.
Anas Urbaningrum, Andi Mallarangeng and Mirwan Amir seemingly remain off the hook, even though their names have repeatedly been implicated during case hearing sessions.
Barkah said that the five politicians' relation to the graft case is among the reasons that have apparently sunk the Democratic Party's popularity.
"The Democratic Party's popularity dropped to the third position, below the Golkar Party, now in first place, and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in second," he said as quoted by kompas.com. The Democratic Party was second after the Golkar party in June 2011.
Another contributing factor has reportedly been the recent drop in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's public approval rating following a growing groundswell of public dissatisfaction with his government's performance.
According to a separate LSI survey, Yudhoyono's approval rating dropped to 48.3 percent at the end of 2011, compared to 56.7 percent recorded at the beginning of last year.
Responding to the party's present situation, as chief party patron, Yudhoyono said that he would not remove Anas from the chairmanship position. "I said I would not remove Anas Urbaningrum as Democratic Party chairman. Why? Because the legal proceedings are underway at the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK]. We stick to the presumption of innocence," Yudhoyono said.
Party colleagues, such as party advisory board member Ahmad Mubarok and party corruption eradication and judicial mafia department head Didi Irawadi have said that Anas' position was safe and would remain so until proven guilty in court.
Contrarily, Democratic Party communication and information department head Ruhut Sitompul had suggested Anas temporarily step down to focus on proving that the graft allegations were not true.
Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Siti Zuhro told The Jakarta Post that it is up to Yudhoyono to decide whether he wants to set an example so that all party members will think twice before engaging in acts of corruption or whether he is merely satisfying himself with rhetoric.
"His speeches might work with party members, but not with the people. People are waiting for real action and not speeches," she said.
Zuhro previously said the Democratic Party will risk losing public support if it does not strongly back the probe of former party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.
"Making statements about supporting the KPK investigators in doing their jobs is not enough. Party officials should do something better given the fact that some of the party's top brass have constantly been mentioned as having played a role in the graft case," she said. (rpt)