As you are probably well aware, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is somewhat of a divisive figure. His outspoken ways and no-nonsense demeanor have earned him plenty of enemies, from the politicians who seek to have him charged with corruption for trying to expose their corruoption to organizations like FPI that have held multiple protests against him based on his religion.
But his efforts to improve the Indonesian capital have also earned him diehard fans, such as the independent group Teman Ahok that is trying to gather enough signatures for Ahok to run as an independent in the 2017 governor’s race.
But what does your average Jakartan think of Ahok? According to a recent survey, about 63% of Jakartans say they are satisfied or very satisfied with the job the governor is doing.
The survey, conducted by the Populi Center research institute, asked 400 Jakartans throughout the city and in The Thousand Islands (also technically a part of Jakarta) their opinions of Ahok, giving the survey a 5% margin of error.
The 63% approval rating is a significant increase from the 59.5% that Ahok received in March 2015 by the same survey.
The latest surveyed also showed that 29.2% of respondents said they were unsatisfied with Ahok’s work while 2.8% said they were very dissatisfied and 5% did not know or chose not to answer.
The survey showed that people also have surprisingly positive feelings about the Jakarta Government in general, with 59.8% of those surveyed saying they were satisfied or very satisfied with the administration’s work.
So for as much as we all complain about the state of the capital, it seems that most Jakartans are in fact satisfied with the progress Ahok and the government is making. Is it possible that the average Jakartan really isn’t that cynical? Or maybe Ahok really does inspire people to crazily believe that our city can actually can get better? Either way, we hope these good feelings last until 2017 when Ahok is actually up for reelection.
