Young politicians hardly compete in 2014 election

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sun, December 09 2012, 9:19 PM

A recent survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (INSIS) has revealed that young politicians are still unable to gain the public’s trust to lead the country in 2014.
The survey shows that around 80 percent of its 1070 respondents are still clueless when offered a list of young politicians, between 35 and 55 years of age, to be a presidential candidate in the 2014 presidential election.

The list includes prominent young politicians like Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum, Golkar Party lawmaker Priyo Budi Santoso, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) politician Puan Maharani and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Hidayat Nur Wahid.
“Indonesians are still clueless when they have to choose young politicians who could be the next president,” researcher with the institute Mochtar W. Oetomo said in a press briefing in Jakarta on Sunday.  

Mochtar, echoing several other political analysts, doubted that young politicians would not be competing in the 2014 presidential election.
“Currently, young politicians still lack political and social capital to run against the ‘old’ politicians in the 2014 presidential election,” he said.

The researcher was referring to the veteran politicians like Jusuf Kalla, Megawati Soekarno Putri, Prabowo Subianto and the likes, that have recurrently competed in presidential elections.
“After the 2014 elections, those old figures will be gone. Then, eventually, each party will have to provide fresh young figures,” Mochtar said.

The institute conducted its survey between Nov. 16 and Dec. 4 in 33 provinces across the country. It used multistage random sampling to choose its respondents. (riz/iwa)