A new study from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) shows that 70 percent of respondents believe that democracy is the best political system for this diverse nation.

“The nation’s democracy is preferred by many, however it should be noted that a significant number of people still perceive it negatively,” a LIPI researcher, Wawan Ichwanuddin, said during a press conference on the survey findings in Jakarta on Thursday.

In the survey conducted between June 25 and July 10, researchers interviewed 1,700 respondents from 33 provinces across the country.

More than half of the respondents believed that democracy tends to put pressure on minorities (53.3 percent) and hinders the country’s economic development (50.4 percent).

The survey also reveals that 49.9 percent of respondents believe that democracy could trigger conflicts, while 35.2 percent of them consider democracy as a system that is not in line with traditional and community values.

Political analyst Nico Harjanto of the Rajawali Foundation applauded people’s confidence in democracy despite their disappointment over social intolerance, horizontal conflicts and rampant corruption in the country.

“Real democracy should be the combination of tolerance and openness to the plurality of ideas,” Nico said.

The survey underlines the growing tolerance among citizens as 87 percent of respondents say they can trust people of different faiths.

The figure reflects a significant improvement from a similar survey conducted early this year by influential think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The survey revealed that of the 2,220 respondents, only 4 percent were willing to trust people of different faiths.

According to the LIPI survey, religious tolerance has also progressed on the political stage as 58 percent of respondents say they do not mind to vote for a legislator or a regional leader of a different faith.

The survey also discloses the respondents’ disfavor over political parties, with only 23.4 percent of them saying that their political party truly accommodates their aspirations. This is not much difference from the CSIS survey finding where only 22.4 percent of respondents believed that political parties still perform well.

According to LIPI, the public trust towards political parties was below reliance on the President (55.5 percent), the courts (32 percent) and the House of Representatives (29.7 percent).

Nico speculated that the low commitment towards political parties was caused by their inconsistencies in implementing their ideologies.

“This indicates that the country may have a large number of swing voters in the upcoming 2014 general election if political parties don’t start formulating rational and doable programs,” he added.

Most respondents believed that Indonesia should have fewer political parties than the current of 38 national and six local parties.

A staggering 58.3 percent preferred the nation to have five political parties maximum, while the remaining 28.1 percent coveted three parties, a system that the country had from 1977 until the final election under the New Order in 1997.

Only 3.5 percent of respondents said Indonesia needed more than 10 political parties.

The group also said that they were pleased with the government’s performance in most sectors, except in the corruption eradication (46 percent) and economic welfare (22 percent) sectors. (yps)

Popular

Resisting oppression with speculative fiction: Anselma’s path to Nebula Awards

Labubu dolls ride China soft-power wave

Brazilian hiker's family criticises speed of Rinjani rescue effort