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Bandung citizens losing faith in mayor's ability to enact change
A survey has shown a steep drop in the numbers of Bandung residents who believe that mayor Ridwan Kamil can transform the city
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survey has shown a steep drop in the numbers of Bandung residents who believe that mayor Ridwan Kamil can transform the city.
A survey revealed a 25.7 percent decrease in public optimism of change under Ridwan and his deputy, Oded Muhammad Danial. Following the pair's inauguration in September 2013, the same survey showed belief in change reaching 93.6 percent.
The Assessment of People's Satisfaction with Ridwan Kamil and Oded Muhammad Danial social survey was conducted by the Information and Democratic Studies Circle (eLSID) and Bandung's Padjadjaran University Political and Security Studies Center (PSPK). The result was announced on Wednesday.
'Only 67.8 percent [of respondents] believed the pair could bring about change, while 20.1 percent expressed pessimism and 5.1 percent were unsure,' said eLSID head Dedi Barnadi.
The survey, which involved 450 respondents from the districts and subdistricts of Bandung, was conducted from April 12 to April 17 this year. Dedi said the sampling method applied was multistage random sampling with a margin of error of around 5.1 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent. The respondents were interviewed face-to-face by interviewers using questionnaires.
A majority of the respondents were 31 to 45 years of age (49.1 percent), followed by the 46 to 60 age group (31.6 percent) and the 18 to 30 age group (19.1 percent).
Dedi said the decline in expectations was associated with unresolved urban issues such as traffic congestion, public services, population documentation, sanitary issues, floods, public order, vice and thuggery, drainage improvement and landscaping.
'The mayor, in the early part of his leadership, focused on park improvement by using corporate social responsibility [CSR] funds, whereas the survey showed that only 17.8 percent of the respondents considered park improvement to be crucial. As many as 43.7 percent of the respondents said solving the issue of traffic congestion was more important,' said Dedi.
Separately, PSDK head Muradi said the drop in public trust in Ridwan and Oded was due to their inability to organize bureaucracy in Bandung evident from the programs prioritized by Ridwan, which mostly involved communities.
'Ridwan has not set out any clear roadmaps to developing the city. He focuses on a populist leadership and anti-political party stance without focusing on public interest. This is obvious from the establishment of 23 working groups that disregard the bureaucracy,' said Muradi.
The use of municipal budget funds amounting to Rp 5.4 trillion (US$415 million) had never been properly controlled, he added. Muradi suggested that Ridwan preferred to emphasize various government programs assisted by third parties by using CSR funds.
'In the past two years, there has never been a survey on public satisfaction. According to regulations, the providers of public services are obliged to conduct a public satisfaction survey at least once a year, but none so far has been carried out,' said Muradi.
Ridwan rejected Muradi's statement, arguing that his administration had carried out bureaucratic reform in line with Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry's guidelines.
'You can ask the ministry about the acceleration of bureaucratic reform in Bandung,' kompas.com quoted Ridwan as saying on Wednesday.
Ridwan first gained popularity with his strong social media presence and his highly publicized plans to improve Bandung's infrastructure.
The Ridwan-Oded ticket was elected as Bandung mayor and vice mayor for the 2013-2018 period after garnering 45.2 percent of ballots, or 434,130 votes of a total of 959,647 votes in a mayoral election contested by eight tickets.
