Politician No, Opposition Parties Yes

RI’s Muslim youth not interested in politics: Survey
Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/14/2011 7:28 PM


Getting involved in politics apparently is not something that is appealing to young Muslims in Indonesia, a survey shows.

The survey, held in November last year and conducted by the Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI) in cooperation with the German culture center Goethe-Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, concluded that Indonesian Muslim youngsters were optimistic about the country’s democracy system even though most of them refused to become politicians.

Forty-one percent of the 1,496 Muslim respondents, aged between 15 and 25 and taken from all 33 provinces, said that they had little interest in politics, and 29 percent said they did not have any interest at all.

When asked what were their goals and dreams were, none answered “to become a politician”.

“But it does not mean they are indifferent about what is good or bad for democracy. Other parts of the survey showed that they actually had a high degree of trust in democracy and its institutions,” Vera Jasini Putri of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation told a press conference on Tuesday.

She said that the survey had seen 66 percent respondents agree that opposition political parties were needed for a good democracy. “The majority of the respondents, or 89 percent, agrees on the freedom of speech which is an essential prerequisite for a functioning democracy,” Vera said.

LSI director Burhanuddin Muhtadi said the survey should add optimism over the country’s politics which is currently being tarnished by numerous scandals and corruption allegations by lawmakers.

“Most respondents expressed disappointment in the implementation of politics, meaning that they are dissatisfied with culprits from certain political parties, not with the democratic system in general,” he said.

Burhanuddin, however, warned the elites of political parties to seriously address current scandals fairly and openly to prevent the youth’s optimism from declining.

“Because the youth are precious assets of the country,” he said.
Muslim youth OK with female president: Survey
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/14/2011 7:21 PM


A recent survey on the political preferences of Muslim youth found that a majority were fine with a woman as the country’s leader, something that would have ignited controversy if it happened a decade ago.

“As many as 70 percent of the 1,496 respondents from all provinces had no complaints if a woman was appointed as the country’s leader. This is good news as back then most Muslim voters objected to a woman’s leadership,” Burhanuddin Muhtadi of the Indonesian Survey Institution (LSI) said Tuesday.

The survey was conducted in cooperation with the Goethe Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Muhtadi said that contrary to increasing optimism, the survey found that 41.4 percent of the respondents stated that they had little interest in politics and the other 28.9 percent even stated that they had no interest in politics at all.

He said only 28.6 percent of the respondents said they still spared some faith in politics, he said.

“When we asked how many want to cast votes in the upcoming general elections, only 16.1 percent said they would vote,” he said.