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May 22 riots cause fear among citizens: Survey
The survey says: Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) researcher Sirajuddin Abbas presents the result of a recent survey on public opinion about the May 22 riots on Sunday
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he survey says: Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) researcher Sirajuddin Abbas presents the result of a recent survey on public opinion about the May 22 riots on Sunday. The survey found that people still think the country’s democracy is on the right track but consider the unrest a setback.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
The public has become more cautious about exercising their freedom of speech and joining organizations as a result of the postelection riots that occurred from May 21 to 23 in Jakarta, the results of a recent survey suggest.
The survey was conducted by Jakarta-based pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) and included 1,078 people aged 17 and above across the country. It was carried out from May 20 to June 1 — before and after the rally protesting the 2019 presidential election result, which resulted in violence and rioting between the evening of May 21 and the early hours of May 23.
The pollster found in the survey that since the riots took place, more people believed that their democratic liberty was threatened.
While the survey recorded that most people — 51 percent — thought that members of the public were already afraid to talk about political matters to each other before the riots, around 43 percent of them thought people were now even more scared to talk about such matters. The number has increased from 17 percent in 2014.
The same went for respondents’ opinions on fear of extrajudicial violence by law enforcers. About 38 percent of respondents believed that people were more afraid of violent acts committed by law enforcement officers after the May riots — increasing from 24 percent compared to five years prior.
More people also believed that members of the public nowadays were more afraid to join an organization — rising from 10 percent in 2014 to 21 percent after the riots — as well as practicing their religion, as perceived by 25 percent of respondents in June.
On the other hand, most respondents — 66 percent — felt they were still satisfied with the democratic system despite all that had happened recently. The number, however, was slightly down from 74 percent in April.
“The results show there are more people who believe that Indonesian democracy experienced a setback during and after the riots on May 21 and 22, while at the same time believing that the system is still strong,” SMRC program director Sirajuddin Abbas said during a press briefing on Sunday.
The survey also recorded the public’s perception of the country’s current economic, political, legal and security condition, especially after the postelection riots.
While people think the riots did not affect overall economic and legal conditions, the survey finds that more people now perceive the country’s political condition to be worsening. In June, around 28 percent of respondents said the political situation in Indonesia was bad — increasing from only 17 percent in April.
More people also perceived that the country’s security condition was bad in June with 14 percent of respondents saying so, compared to only 10 percent in April.
Sirajuddin noted that people had been looking at some controversies surrounding the May incidents, including clashes between police officers and rioters that went on for the whole night until early morning as well as law enforcers’ excessive violence toward several people claimed to be rioters.
“These things triggered negative perceptions about Indonesian democratic indicators,” he said.
Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) director, Titi Anggraini, blamed the lack of digital literacy as well as the vast penetration of social media.
“People have yet to realize there are consequences, including legal ones, of posting false information or hate speech on the internet. When law enforcers prosecute them for doing that, they consider it a repressive action against them and their democratic liberty,” Titi said.
She also blamed the worsening perceptions of democratic indicators on the unnatural polarization among voters because there were only two presidential candidates. Titi said the unrest might not have been as bad if there were more candidates competing for the presidential seat.
Thamrin Amal Tamagola, a sociologist from the University of Indonesia, said there should be efforts for reconciliation at the grassroots level in order to prevent the public’s perception of democratic indicators from decreasing.
