New Survey Shows the Majority of Public Still Satisfied with Jokowi

TheIndonesia.id - A new study showed that nearly 80 percent of Indonesians were still satisfied with the performance of President Joko Widodo despite the current national issues like price crisis and political tension.

In a survey by Indonesia Elections and Strategic (indEX) Research, public satisfaction of Widodo’s leadership remained high even though it slightly dropped compared to the previous survey.

“There was a slight decline even though, generally, satisfaction remains high,” researcher Reza Reinaldi said on Thursday, April 7, as reported by Antara.

79.3 percent of respondents said they were satisfied – with 6.3 percent of those said they were very satisfied. The figure, however, was lower compared to January survey where public satisfaction was recorded at above 80 percent.

Meanwhile, dissatisfaction was recorded at 19.4 percent, and 2.3 percent of those said they were very dissatisfied.

The remaining 1.3 percent said they didn’t know.

According to Reinaldi, the declining figure should act as an early warning for Widodo and his cabinet to make the right decision in the coming period, especially as Indonesia is facing several problems at once, including price hike of commodities.

“In the case of cooking oil [shortage], the policy made by the Ministry of Trade keeps changing and it causes long queues in many places,” he said.

Furthermore, the scarcity and rising price also occurs ahead of and during Ramadan, so the government has to think very carefully to prevent further price hike that will trigger inflation.

However, Reinaldi said the President appeared to have understood the public concern, as shown in his recent message to his ministers to stop discussing the probability of an election postponement and to focus on resolving the economic crisis at hand, instead.

1,200 respondents from all provinces across Indonesia participated in the survey which was conducted on March 21-30, 2022. It used stratified random sampling and involved in-person interview, with 2.9 percent margin of error and 95 percent confidence level.