Jakarta – What traits should one have to become Indonesia's next president? A recent survey revealed that a presidential candidate who is decisive, firm and has strong leadership might be the voters' favorite.
The Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate (SSS) published its latest survey on Wednesday showing that 22.1 percent of respondents preferred to have a president who was firmly decisive. "Decisive leadership is top of the list of what the country wants," said survey coordinator Muhammad Dahlan.
Other characteristics favored by respondents included "pro-people" (14.3 percent), "honest" (14.1 percent), "leadership ability (13.6 percent) and "intelligence" (12.2 percent).
These preferences may be related to the performance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Many critics have regularly highlighted his indecisiveness and poor leadership as hindrances in the country's drive to accelerate economic growth and implement bureaucratic reform.
Yudhoyono is constrained by the Constitution from running for a third term in the 2014 election.
As people sought a decisive leader, Prabowo Subianto, a retired three-star general and former chief of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), topped the potential candidate list, according to the survey.
Prabowo, founder of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and former son-in-law of late dictator Soeharto, is preferred by 25.8 percent of respondents.
Trailing behind with 22.4 percent is the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, who remains a strong contender for the next elections despite speculation that she may not run as a candidate.
Other favorites include former vice president and Golkar Party politician Jusuf Kalla at 14.9 percent and Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie at 10.6 percent.
The survey also showed that the presidential candidate preference did not relate to the political party preferences of the respondents, with Golkar supported by 23 percent of respondents, followed by PDI-P with 19.6 percent, the Democratic Party with 10.7 percent and Gerindra with 10.5 percent.
The survey was conducted between May 14 and 24 in 33 provinces and involved 2,192 respondents.
The survey also revealed that Prabowo would probably be able to secure support in almost all regions excluding Sumatra, where Megawati was 3 percent more popular. Based on several other surveys, Prabowo has secured increasing support to be the next president.
A study by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published in February, for instance, revealed that 10 percent of respondents supported Megawati, while another 6.7 percent said they would vote for Prabowo. The survey questioned 2,200 respondents in 23 provinces.
A survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), published a week after that of the CSIS, showed that Prabowo had overtaken his previously stronger competitor Megawati, winning 39 percent to her 29 percent of respondents' preferences. The LSI queried 2,050 respondents from across the country's 33 provinces for the survey.
"It's very likely that the big support enjoyed by Prabowo is due to people being fed up with the current government, which they regard as having a lack of firmness in taking decisions," CSIS political observer J. Kristiadi said.
"People will simply forget whatever sins he [Prabowo] might have committed in the past as they are driven by frustration," said Kristiadi, hinting at the many allegations against Prabowo of human rights' violations committed before and during the 1998 reform movement to oust Soeharto.
Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said that the party was happy to learn of the increasing support for Prabowo. "We see this survey as an indicator that people want a new leader with a new course of action," he said. (aml)