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Jakarta. In the face of what appears to be a public relations nightmare, the Democratic Party on Friday blamed the media and political experts for causing the decline in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s popularity.

The Democratic Party’s deputy chairman, Max Sopacua, said the party could accept the fact that the president’s popularity was indeed waning, as shown by the results of two surveys, but he questioned whether the public had an accurate understanding of the president’s achievements.

“We acknowledge the drop,” he said. “It’s public opinion that has been contaminated by political experts and media reports. They tend to show the negative sides only, while the president has achievements as well.”

On Thursday, an Indo Barometer poll showed Yudhoyono’s approval rating in August had dropped almost 40 percentage points, from 90 to 51, since August 2009. An Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) poll revealed an almost 20 percent decline, from 85 to 66.

LSI’s poll reached 1,829 people while the Indo Barometer survey polled 1,200.

Max said public opinion was shaped by the media — since political experts talk to the media, the public takes its cues from the media. “The media tends to expose the bad news, because bad news is good news,” he said.

Max said the media should give a more balanced picture of today’s political situation, and not only cover select issues.

“However, we will use the results as part of our evaluation material,” he said.

Though the surveys might not paint a glowing picture of the government’s performance, Heru Lelono, a communications and information staff member for the president, said the administration appreciated the results and would use them as tools to improve its performance.

He said the administration would respond positively to the survey results by mapping out the problems currently faced by the country and enacting new pro-poor policies.

“It’s not about bad leadership by our president. I think the people would still vote for the president if an election were held today,” Heru said.

But he also said the survey results were not as bad as they seemed. He said Yudhoyono only began his second term in August 2009, and it was to be expected for the government to get off to a slow start in the first few months.

“If LSI’s survey only covered 10 months, a 60 percent approval is good,” Heru said, adding that government’s performance was improving each day.

LSI analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi on Thursday also said a 66 percent approval rating was still relatively high.

Opposition parties, however, are already trying to take advantage of the survey results. House Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), on Thursday said the surveys should be seen as a “drastic decline.”

He also said the surveys were conducted before the Malaysia row erupted, which would have pushed the president’s approval figures even lower.

Syarifuddin Sudding, from the opposition People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), said he was confident the actual approval figures were even lower than in the surveys, and that the Democrats should accept that people no longer had the same level of trust in Yudhoyono.

“President Yudhoyono had been lulled by his popularity. But now he no longer has time just for shaping his image. He needs to take real action,” Syarifuddin said, adding that people in general are disappointed with Yudhoyono’s performance.