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Majority of people oppose KPK Law revision, support student protests, new survey reveals
According to the survey, support for the protests was largely driven by the fact 70.9 percent of respondents who were aware of the KPK Law revision believed it would weaken the antigraft body.
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Vote of no confidence: Hundreds of student demonstrators write protest slogans on a road in front of the Regional Legislative Council building in Denpasar, Bali, . (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
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recent study conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) has revealed high public dissatisfaction against the controversial revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law and indicated support for calls for the issuance of a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to revoke the revision, a rebuttal to claims made by the government and its supporters that the revision had wide support.
The House of Representatives passed the new KPK bill last month despite criticism from activists and academics that the revision contained articles that would weaken the antigraft body. The move ignited a wave of online and offline protests across the country, mainly staged by university students, who called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to issue a Perppu, among other demands. The protests also resulted in the deaths of at least three protesters.
The protests in Jakarta began on Sept. 24, the same day Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko claimed the government and the House had decided to approve the passage of the bill, citing a survey released by the Kompas research and development division to claim “more people support the revision of the KPK Law [than do not]”.
According to the survey, released on Sept. 16, 44.9 percent of respondents supported the revision while only 33.9 percent said they disagreed with the bill.
The hashtag #SupportKPKBillalso emerged on Twitter, which many believed was amplified by pro-government paid social media influencers, known as buzzers, and bot accounts in an effort to counter the #TolakRUUKPK(oppose the KPK bill) hashtag initiated by protesters.
The LSI study released on Oct. 6, however, revealed findings to the contrary.
The survey, based on interviews conducted between Oct. 4 and 5 with 1,010 respondents from across the country, showed that 60.7 percent of those who were aware of the student protests and the KPK Law revision were in support of the rallies. Only 5.9 percent were against the protests, while the remaining 31 percent chose to stay neutral and the remaining declined to answer.
