Survey Reveals Public Satisfaction With Jokowi Declines, Faldo Maldini: Whatever We Do Has Impact On Public Opinion

President Jokowi / PHOTO via Instagram Jokowi

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Faldo Maldini said the government understands that whatever it does will cause various opinions from the public. However, this is not a concern because the most important thing is to solve the problems that arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was conveyed by Faldo in response to the survey results of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC). SMRC Research Director, Deni Irvani said that the level of satisfaction with the performance of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had decreased in the last three months.

"We always pay attention to public opinion in our work as an outcome. So whatever we do, the impact is public opinion," Faldo said in a written statement quoted on Saturday, April 2.

Faldo said the various public opinions are still getting attention. But, he said it was the impact of all the steps taken by the government in solving problems in society today.

"That's not the main goal. That's the impact, our main goal of course is to solve the problem of the community's need to rise from this pandemic. It means to work harder," he said.

Faldo also talked about the issue of extending the term of office. He asked all parties to be wise and not to link this to President Jokowi.

"The issue of extension (presidential term of office, ed), should not be linked to the president's will," he stressed.

"We have a running system and state administration, a constitution that is our reference in the state. There, we don't have to develop it," he added.

Even so, Faldo understands that the discourse that arises regarding the extension of the term of office is the dynamics in democracy. Of course, this kind of thing also cannot be prohibited because the state has the duty to protect the rights of opinion of every citizen.

"What kind of public opinion is that, let it be a dynamic in democracy. Everyone's attitudes and opinions must be protected by the state. His attitude is in line with the government, that's another matter. The duty of the state is to protect the right of opinion of every citizen," said Faldo.

As previously reported, SMRC said 64.6 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Jokowi's performance, 32.2 percent were dissatisfied, and 3.1 percent did not answer or said they didn't know. Although the satisfaction rate for Jokowi's performance is higher, the trend has declined in the last three months.

"The approval rating, or the level of satisfaction with the president's performance, has decreased in the last three months, from 71.7 percent in the December 2021 survey to 64.6 percent in the March 2022 survey," said Deni, seen on SMRC TV's YouTube show, Wednesday, March 30.

This survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews from 13-20 March 2022. The total sample collected by trained data collectors reached 1027 respondents.

The sample was randomly selected from the population of Indonesian citizens aged 17 years and over or already married when the survey was conducted. The survey's margin of error is estimated at +/- 3.5 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.