Researcher Urges Indonesians To Be More Critical In Reading Survey Results

Researcher of Research and Development of Kompas, Yohan Wahyu. (Photo: Didi Kurniawan)

JAKARTA - Kompas Researcher Yohan Wahyu invited the Indonesian people to be critical in reading the results of a political survey in the 2024 Presidential Election (Pilpres).

"The survey is a mere temperature measuring device whose correctness level is not absolute, temporal in nature, and always dynamic," he said in a written statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday, July 22.

He suggested that in reading the results of political research, it must be read casually. Yohan appealed to the public not to be trapped in the understanding that the political survey was the truth.

This was conveyed by Yohan in a public discussion held by the Indonesian Development Research Institute (IDR).

The discussion, which presented researchers, journalists, and academics, presented the Head of the External Division of the Indonesian Public Opinion Survey Association (Persepi) Andi Syafrani.

Andi Syafrani said he agreed with Yohan Wahyu regarding the nature of the recent political survey that has mushroomed. The survey institute, according to Andi, initially aims to map academically into the dynamics of national politics.

"Initially, the work results of the survey institute were interesting as a method to look at the political behavior map of residents, this is certainly a progress of social science because previously this survey method was not widely known," he explained.

However, as a person classified as a survey worker for the initial start-up period, he realized that the work of survey institutions was often used as a means of political propaganda.

"I started my career as a field surveyor so I understand in full how the survey was carried out and how it grew," explained Andi.

Meanwhile, senior journalist former Tempo Magazine Elik Susanto suggested that survey institutions that have been actively working on political surveys should not be trapped as a tool to deceive the public by leading opinions for certain candidates.

"It is better that survey institutions must be professional and strict on research methodology," he said.