Soaring public approval for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo far outstrips that for the House of Representatives, raising concerns over whether the national legislature can credibly serve to oversee the executive.

It is feared that abysmal public trust in the House may discourage lawmakers from serving as a check and balance on the Jokowi administration, the popularity of which has survived two Cabinet reshuffles in as many years and a slowing economy.

A new survey by the Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia shows growing public approval for Jokowi’s leadership, with 68 percent of those polled expressing satisfaction in the government’s performance.

The study also found that of state institutions, the President is the most trusted, while the House — alongside political parties — is the least trusted.

The high public approval rate for Jokowi’s performance is apparently due to his success in convincing the public of his leadership after consolidating party support by persuading the Golkar Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN) to join the government.

The additional two parties seal Jokowi’s domination in the House, where he is now backed by seven of 10 party factions.

The survey also found that 81.5 percent of the total 1,220 respondents interviewed between Aug. 1 and 9 applauded Jokowi for winning over more political parties, confident that greater political support would mean a stronger performance.

On the contrary, only 15.1 percent criticized the support Jokowi has secured from political parties over concerns that political parties, and therefore the House, would be too weak to properly oversee the government.

“The growing support [for Jokowi] has drawn little concern from the public about the government’s cartel of political parties. It matters only to academics,” said Burhanuddin Muhtadi.

“People on the lower levels of society are concerned only with stability,” the executive director of Indikator Politik Indonesia emphasized.

Burhanuddin elaborated that the Indonesian tendency to favor harmony had led to Jokowi embracing more political parties in his government, despite critics’ concerns that such political consolidation would serve to allow parties to exploit public resources for their own gain.

Besides the growing support from political parties, the high approval Jokowi has obtained is due to a surge in infrastructure construction, such as roads and public transportation, and wider public access to health services.

However, Jokowi remains perceived as failing to provide employment and reduce poverty.

Meanwhile, there is little confidence in the ability of the House to effectively oversee the government’s performance, with 386 of 560 legislative votes now guaranteed for Jokowi’s programs.

And the lack of progressive figures such as Jokowi within political parties is expected only to aggravate parties’ reluctance to criticize the governments; they are instead likely to unconditionally support the President in a bid to maximize their votes in upcoming regional, legislative and presidential elections.

Golkar lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo concurred.

“It is important for Golkar to keep Jokowi’s electability up because it will increase the party’s electability as well,” he said, commenting on the poll.

 “The challenge for Golkar, the PDI-P [ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle] and other parties that support the government is how to work together to support the state’s policies because if they fail, it will affect our electability,” Bambang said.
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