Analyst: Gerindra Takes Advantages of Popularity of Jokowi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Universitas Indonesia’s Political Psychology professor Hamdi Muluk claimed the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party is having a confidence crisis as the party put Jakarta Governor Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo as Prabowo’s vice president candidate. The indication was shown by an internal survey conducted by the party.

"Gerindra is taking  an advantage of Jokowi’s popularity. This is ridiculous," Hamdi told Tempo yesterday.

Hamdi said political parties frequently use Jokowi to raise their popularity and electability. Some legislators of other parties even display their photos with Jokowi for political campaign purposes.

Hamdi also questioned the respondents' selection and the questionnaire of the survey. If the respondents were from the party, he mentioned the party is having 'in group favoritism' symptoms.

If the respondents were selected randomly, he said, the questions could have been manipulated. Therefore, research conducted by Gerindra would be in favor of the party itself. In fact, he added, almost all independent surveys have shown both the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s and Jokowi’s popularity to be the highest. It would be impossible for Jokowi to be Prabowo’s vice president candidate.

"Gerindra cannot rely on the data provided by its instantly-established research institution," he said.

MUHAMMAD MUHYIDDIN