Arientha Primanita – According to analysts commenting on a new poll, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's strategy of prioritizing his political image at the expense of decisive action has not paid off.

The survey, by the recently established Institute for Strategic and Public Policy Research (Inspire), showed that while the president was viewed to have fared well on the issues of religious and press freedom, a majority of the 1,500 respondents were critical of his commitment to fighting graft and promoting clean governance.

Marbawi A. Katon, the lead researcher at Inspire, said only 46.1 percent of respondents believed the president had conducted "clean and ethical politics."

"In the survey, 64.8 percent of respondents did not believe Yudhoyono had really protected Indonesian workers, and 56.9 percent said he didn't fight corruption seriously," Marbawi said at the launch of the poll's findings on Sunday.

The survey also showed that 66.8 percent did not believe Yudhoyono had done his best to crack down on corruption in the tax office, while 56.4 percent believed he had failed to probe the suspiciously large bank accounts held by top police officers.

It also showed that while 39.4 percent of respondents did not believe he had interfered in legal issues in the country, 39.3 percent believed that he had.

Nico Harjanto, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the findings showed that the public did not believe Yudhoyono had taken decisive action on strategic national issues. "His image-centered politics have failed, in part because of his own personality," he said at a discussion on the findings.

Compared to former presidents such as founding father Sukarno and Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, a champion of pluralism, Yudhoyono's overly careful approach had backfired, Nico said. "He could be dubbed the president who likes discourse and meetings," he said.

The survey, carried out between March 26 and April 3, polled residents of 15 cities outside Jakarta above the age of 17.

Abdul Malik Gismar, a political and psychology expert from Paramadina University, said one interesting finding that emerged was the preference of 40.9 percent of respondents for the next president to come from the Armed Forces (TNI) and for the vice president to be an intellectual.

"That's an interesting result because maybe the people want legal order, considering the pressing issues of religious intolerance, violence and threats," he said.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha denied that the administration was more focused on its image rather than on its performance. "If they say the government tends to emphasize its image, that's not correct," he said. "The government is only focused on work, work and work."

Julian stressed the government had never made any misleading claims of having achieved its targets on certain issues. "We know there are things that we haven't achieved yet, but it's all in the works," he said.