Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Anita Rachman & Arientha Primanita – The Democratic Party has lashed out at a recent survey showing a drop in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's approval rating, claiming the poll was unfair, biased and aimed at undermining the government's credibility.
Saan Mustopha, deputy secretary general of the ruling party, said on Monday that his party was skeptical about the findings from the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) poll showing Yudhoyono's popularity dropping from 56.7 percent in January to 47.2 percent in June.
He said the LSI had carried out a similar survey two weeks earlier, with similar results.
"How could they question people about approval ratings so often?" Saan said. "For us, this shows their surveys are intentionally meant to attack the government."
He also argued that the LSI's pollsters questioned respondents about their satisfaction with the government's performance on legal issues, whereas the approval rating should be based on a wider range of issues.
"There should be figures for legal issues, security issues, economic issues and so on, with the real approval rating representing the weighted average of these figures," he said. "We can't believe the LSI's approval rating claim if it covers just a single sector."
Saan said there were also indications that the LSI was working in the interests of a certain political group.
"Show us the results of a survey done by an independent surveyor and we'll believe that, but not one by those acting as political consultants to a certain political group," he said, declining to name the group in question.
However, a source within the Democrats, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged that a subsidiary of the LSI worked for the Golkar Party.
Bambang Susatyo, Golkar's deputy treasurer, denied that the party was behind the survey. "Rather than spend our money on such a survey, we prefer to spend the money on the activities of our branch offices," Bambang said.
He also chastised the Democrats for kicking up a fuss about the survey rather than taking steps to address the public grievances that it highlighted. "Just do a simple survey: ask 10 people on the street, and you'll find the same answers as the survey gave," he said. "It can't be denied."
Pramono Anung, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, agreed that the government should see the survey as a wake-up call.
Pramono, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the survey should prompt Yudhoyono to review his approach to settling problems, including the practice of setting up a new task force for each issue.
"We've got many task forces but it's become counterproductive," he said. But Syarief Hasan, a senior Democrat and the minister for cooperatives and small and medium enterprises, said the results of the poll were still questionable.
He said the LSI had wrongly tied the president's performance to the graft scandals involving former Democrat treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin.
"Nazaruddin is a different case," Syarief said. "It shouldn't relate to Yudhoyono's popularity. Yudhoyono works for the government."
He said the government had also proved its antigraft credentials and commitment to upholding the law.