Yerica Lai, Jakarta – Public confidence that Indonesia is moving in the right direction has plunged during President Prabowo Subianto 's first two years in office, a new survey showed, amid growing dissatisfaction with the government's performance and mounting concerns over political and economic conditions.
The survey by pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), which interviewed 1,213 respondents from Oct. 1 to 10, found that Indonesians who believed the country was moving in the right direction fell to 47.7 percent from 83 percent in October 2024, when Prabowo took office.
Meanwhile, the number of respondents who believed the country was heading in the wrong direction rose to 34.3 percent, from 13 percent over the same period. The share of undecided respondents also increased from 5 percent to 18 percent. The survey had a 2.9 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.
The figure marked the lowest level since the pollster began tracking public perceptions of the country's direction in October 2010, when 70 percent of respondents said Indonesia was moving in the right direction during the second term of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The pollster founder Saiful Mujani described the findings as an "early, strong" warning for Prabowo's administration, cautioning that growing public pessimism could eventually develop into a more tangible threat to national unity if the government fails to improve conditions.
"People could begin to question what the country actually does for them," he said on the SMRC YouTube channel on Tuesday, warning that the declining public confidence in the country's direction could develop into a more fundamental question about national belonging, including the value of being Indonesians.
Saiful linked the declining optimism to Prabowo's declining approval ratings in an August survey, when his approval rating fell to 51.1 percent, from 81.2 percent in November last year, amid worsening public perceptions of political and economic conditions and the implementation of the government's priority programs.
"People assess the country's direction based on the president's performance and broader conditions," he said, noting that the majority of those who are satisfied believe Indonesia is moving in the right direction, while those who are dissatisfied are more likely to believe it is moving in the wrong direction.
A survey by the think tank Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) and Shadow Cabinet, an independent initiative bringing together academics, activists and professionals to scrutinize government policies, meanwhile, gave the administration low marks for its first two years in office.
Findings from the survey, conducted between Sept. 15 and Oct. 9, showed that 129 expert respondents rated the administration 2.9 out of 10, while 1,142 members of the public gave it an average score of 4.6 out of 10.
In the survey, 75 percent of respondents said they had experienced "emotional stress due to government policies", while 67 percent said they had "felt stressed by the President's conduct".
"These findings show that government policies and the president's conduct have placed psychological pressure on the daily lives of the majority of the population," the report stated.
The Government Communications Agency (Bakom) did not respond to The Jakarta Post's request for comment on the SMRC survey.
Prabowo's Gerindra Party spokesperson Sugiat Santoso, however, dismissed the report from Celios, arguing that its survey findings failed to reflect tangible impacts of government programs on grassroot communities.
"Prabowo was elected by the people not to appease political commentators, but to deliver meaningful changes that directly improve public welfare," he said in a statement on Tuesday.