While the administration of President Joko Widodo has recently made some big moves to try and contain the influence of Islamic hardliner groups, such as attempting to disband Islamist organization Hizbut Tahrir, the president generally distanced himself from Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama during his blasphemy scandal to avoid giving credence to conspiracy theories that he was protecting Ahok.
Many of Ahok’s supporters were disappointed that Jokowi didn’t do more to defend his former right-hand man, But, it terms of political standing, Jokowi did manage to weather the political controversy that polarized much of Indonesia with little impact on his popularity.
That’s according to the results of a new survey by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SRMC). Jokowi came out on top in the survey’s ranking of who people would vote for if a presidential election were to be held now.
Around 34.1% of voters said they would vote for the incumbent, while Jokowi’s rival from the 2014 election, Gerindra head Prabowo Subianto, came in second place with 17.2% of the vote. In a head-to-head matchup between the two, 53.7% pick Jokowi and 37.2% go for Prabowo.
Many argued that the Jakarta gubernatorial race was a proxy battle positioning political parties for the 2019 presidential election, likely featuring a rematch between Jokowi and Prabowo (who backed Governor-elect Anies Baswedan).
The survey found that overall approval of Jokowi’s performance is still high, with 67% saying they were satisfied with his work and 69% saying he was a good leader. Jokowi has similarly high approval ratings last year before the outbreak of the blasphemy scandal.
Part of the reason for those high ratings could be attributed to the relative stability of the economy during Jokowi’s tenure, with 57% of respondents saying the economy was moving in a positive direction.
Levels of confidence in government institutions are also generally quite high, with the military getting a 90% confidence vote, the office of the President getting 86%, KPK 86%, police 77%, courts 76% and prosecutors with 74%.
Levels of confidence were lowest for the House of Representatives which got 64% and political parties, which got 56%.
The surveys were done between May 14-20 and polled 1,350 respondents. SMRC gave it a 2.5% margin of error and a confidence level of 95%.
