In the 11th annual poll conducted by the Lowy Institute, 34 percent of respondents agreed that Indonesia was a democracy (10 percent said they strongly agreed, 24 percent said they somewhat agreed). The proportion was slightly higher than 33 percent in 2013 (7 percent strongly agreeing, 26 percent somewhat agreeing).

The poll comes a year after Indonesia conducted legislative and presidential elections that saw Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo chosen as the country'€™s seventh president. The elections were globally regarded as vibrant and peaceful.

A slim majority of the respondents, however, responded that Indonesia, often referred to as the world'€™s third-biggest democracy and largest democratic Islam-dominated country, said that they disagreed that Indonesia was a democracy (27 percent strongly disagreed and another 27 percent somewhat disagreed).

'€œAustralians still seem to have a poor understanding of domestic developments in Indonesia. In 2015, only 34 percent of Australians regard Indonesia as a democracy, almost exactly the proportion who said this in 2013, despite the fact that Indonesia has been a parliamentary [sic] democracy for over 15 years,'€ the study says.

The think tanks also found that Australians'€™ views on democracy, and particularly those of younger Australians, were among the most striking findings in Lowy'€™s last four years of polling.

In 2015, 65 percent of the voting-age population say that '€œdemocracy is preferable to any other kind of government'€, up from around 60 percent over the preceding three years.

'€œThere has been a corresponding drop [from 24 percent in 2014 to 18 percent this year] in the proportion of the population who believe that, in some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable,'€ says the study.

The poll studied Australians'€™ perception of dozens of countries, but only a few were highlighted, including Indonesia, China, Papua New Guinea and the US.

According to the poll, Australian public feeling toward Indonesia has hit a cool 46 degrees, the lowest in the past nine years. Jakarta-Canberra relations are currently tense in the wake of reports of Australian officials '€œbribing'€ people smugglers to return their boats to Indonesia.

President Jokowi, who remains popular at home, turns out to be less liked in Australia, with 42 percent of respondents saying they did not know who he was. As many as three percent of respondents said they admired Jokowi very much, while 22 percent professed slight admiration. (dmr)(+++)

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