Indonesians find Wahid 'irreplaceable' as leader: survey

0 Comments | Asian Political News, July 17, 2000

JAKARTA, July 12 Kyodo

Indonesians consider President Abdurrahman Wahid "irreplaceable" as a leader despite criticism of his nine-month-old administration and mounting efforts to discredit him, according to the results of a survey reported Wednesday.

Eighty-nine percent of respondents said no one would be better suited to lead Indonesia, showed the survey by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information and the Center for Study of Development and Democracy, both private organizations.

The survey was reported by the Indonesian Observer newspaper.

Researchers had asked 1,240 respondents from Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Makassar and Banjarmasin about their choice to replace Wahid if he were to resign or be ousted from office.

Most said that Wahid is still the best person to lead Indonesia toward peace, prosperity and democracy, according to the report.

"The people said they couldn't imagine the possibility of the government staging a takeover or finding another figure to replace President Wahid," Imam Achmad, director of the institute, was quoted in the report as saying.

Imam also said that 48% of the respondents rejected a proposal to change a general session of the People's Consultative Assembly slated for Aug. 7-18 into a special session to grill Wahid over his failure to contain pockets of unrest in the country.

Sixty-five percent of the respondents said the Wahid administration has allowed more political freedom than previous governments, while 55% said legislators failed to heed Indonesians' aspirations and monitor the government.

At least 74% said law-enforcement agencies, the military and police have failed in their duty to protect citizens from violence.