IO, Jakarta – An Indonesian Survey Agency (Lembaga Survei Indonesia – “LSI”) investigation shows that the Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi – “KPK”) is an agency most trusted by the public, with a trust level of 84%, while the Presidency has a trust level of 79%. Meanwhile, other agencies including the Police force (72% trust level), the Courts (71%), and the House of Representatives (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat – “DPR”) (61%). Political parties in general have a low trust level at 53%.
The survey involved 1,220 respondents aged 17 years or older as of 11-16 May 2019. It uses a multi-stage random sampling method with a 2.9% margin of error and a reliability level of 95%. “Within the past four years, KPK remains the most trusted agency among the public, followed by the President and the Police. DPR and Political Parties share a very low trust level. The trend for trust for the Police, DPR, and Political Parties tended to increase in 2016-2018, but stagnated in 2019,” Senior LSI Researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi stated during an announcement of the survey at Mercure Hotel, Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Thursday (29-08-2019).
In terms of satisfaction, 61.1% of respondents are satisfied with KPK’s performance and 28.9% are dissatisfied. 63.4% of the respondents who claimed satisfaction with KPK voted for Jokowi-Maruf. Therefore, Burhanuddin said that the high level of people’s trust in KPK positively contributed to the re-election of Joko Widodo in the 2019 Presidential Elections. “The majority of citizens (50.8%) think that the current government has put a lot of effort into eradicating corruption and bribery, and some (10.3%) think that it has done a good job. The remaining 28% think that the government has not worked much to decrease corruption,” Burhanuddin said.
These survey results show that the people sincerely care about the eradication of corruption. Satisfaction with KPK’s performance seems to be equally distributed among all citizen groups. Citizens also seem to commonly agree that KPK has improved its performance. This is both a capital and a challenge for future eradication of corruption efforts. “In other words, the trust must be responded to with constant effort to maintain KPK’s work and to make sure that it will continue to be led by people with high integrity. This will maintain the general performance of corruption eradication and cause the people to appreciate KPK even more,” he said.
As we all know, we are currently in the middle of selecting KPK leaders. This election stakes the political credibility and commitment of President Joko Widodo towards the values of democracy in the Government within the next five years. Burhanuddin believes that Jokowi must be able to make the right choices in determining KPK’s next leader. Otherwise, it is highly likely that Jokowi would lose support. “People who trust the President generally trust KPK and vice versa. This is why if the President make the wrong step in the succession of KPK leadership, he might lose the support of pro-KPK citizens,” he said.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Coordinator Adnan Topo Husodo was present at the event. He stated that the results of the survey can be used as a logical and pragmatic reasoning to base Jokowi’s policies on. He made the statement in terms of priority issues such as infrastructure construction, improvement of business climate in Indonesia, and economic growth. KPK has a strategic role in supporting these programs; therefore, KPK is important in terms of achieving the President’s pragmatical goals. “How come? Because we all know that strategic programs such as infrastructure construction frequently have more deviations in practice,” he said.
Furthermore, the business climate must be arranged effectively in order to attract investors. Having more investors means that economic condition will improve. “The bottom of all this is the trust of businessmen in Indonesia, among others in terms of legal certainty, which is a serious issue,” Adnan said. “There are still many corrupt practices. This proves detriment the effectiveness of Jokowi’s strategic policies and programs. Therefore, the relationship between Presidential policies and the KPK cannot be eliminated.” (Dan)