T

he Indonesian Association for Public Opinion Surveys (Persepi) will apply strict rules and a code of ethics on its members to prevent them from duping the public with fraudulent results and opinions.

Last month, soon after the July 9 presidential election, several pollsters, including the Development and Policy Research Center (Puskaptis) and the Indonesian Votes Network (JSI), declared that the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa presidential ticket beat Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and Jusuf Kalla by as much as 6 percent, while seven other Persepi member pollsters called the election for Jokowi-Kalla.

The seven pollsters favoring Jokowi had been audited by Persepi'€™s ethics council and their results had been declared valid.

Puskaptis and JSI did not comply with the audit order and declined to open their data to the public.

The two pollsters, therefore, were dismissed from the group.

Persepi deputy chairman Muhammad Qodari said that the level of trust from the public towards pollsters had declined, thanks to this case.

'€œI have never imagined before that there are people or institutions that are toying with quick-count results,'€ he said late last week in a recent discussion on the role of survey and social media in Indonesia.

He said that given their strategic role, pollsters have to be credible and reliable.

He said that by publishing fraudulent results pollsters could ruin their own reputations and, worse, could incite conflict in society.

'€œPeople could be angry because they feel their presidential candidate, who was supposed to win the election, was turned into a loser and this is very dangerous,'€ he said, referring to supporters of the losing presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto.

Persepi chairman Nico Harjanto told The Jakarta Post that the association would be make it mandatory for pollsters to adhere to scientific principles and not compromise their methods for political gain.

'€œWe will strengthen our integrity pact and code of ethics,'€ he said, adding that the association would build the capacity of its members.

Nico said that in the near future Persepi would propose that the House of Representative amend the 1997 Law on Statistics so that it could also cover public opinion surveys and apply proper punishments on pollsters who mislead the public.

Nico said that a public opinion survey, whether it was conducted through social media or in the real environment, had an important role to play in a democratic setting.

Nico, who is also chairman of the Jakarta-based pollster Populi Center, argued that in a democracy credible pollsters could help the government determine future policies so that the executives did not rely only on politicians from the House of Representatives.

'€œSurveys are part of scientific efforts to gauge the aspirations of real people,'€ he said.

Nico said that once pollsters distorted public opinion it could drive the country into the wrong direction.

'€œIt can lead to the government making a wrong decision,'€ he said. (ask)