Indonesian Voters Tend to Be Nasionalist, Reject Free Market

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) released the results of its latest survey on the 2024 General Elections, one of which was related to the ideology of voters and political parties. Nationally, SMRC found that Indonesian voters tended to choose a party with a nationalist political ideology over Islamic ideology.

“That explains why nationalist parties are more favorable because it is in line with their own sentiments,” said SMRC researcher and founder Saiful Mujani on Thursday, April 21.

The survey also asked voters' views on political parties which are divided into two groups, namely nationalists and Islamists. PDIP was considered the most nationalist party, whereas the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) was seen as the most Islamic party.

Two other parties were also considered to be Islamic parties, viz. the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB). “This is surprising,” Saiful added.

He claimed that he had just known the voters' points of view. This means Indonesian voters now have sufficient knowledge of political parties albeit they tended to be predominantly nationalist.

On the other hand, other nationalist parties include Gerindra, Golkar, NasDem, and Democrat. The National Mandate Party (PAN) was still considered a nationalist party, but was very close to being seen as an Islamic party.

Despite ideological differences, the commonality of voters lies in the state's authority in the economy. The majority opined that political parties tend to be pro-state towards the economy, rather than pro-market.

Voters also agreed that the economy should be regulated by the government. Thus, SMRC concluded that no Indonesians were pro-free market. “The voters tend to be pro-state, command economy. There is neither free market nationalist nor islamic free market,” Saiful said.

Using the stratified multistage random method, the SMRC survey involved 1,220 respondents who have the right to vote. The margin of error was recorded at around 3.12 percent with the confidence level at 95 percent. The face-to-face interviews were conducted on March 13-20, 2022.

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