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Proposals for the creation of a law to regulate survey institutes received a cool reception over the weekend, with critics saying such legislation should not be prioritized as it would only be used to further the interests of political liberalization.

“We prefer to focus on bills that will protect the interests of the people,” said Tjahjo Kumolo, secretary general of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

“Polling institutes that advance certain political interests will eventually be swept aside, so no law is needed.”

Results from several recent surveys drawing conflicting conclusions have raised questions about the possible influence of the stakeholders who commission the studies.

On Friday, House of Representatives deputy speakers Priyo Budi Santoso from the Golkar Party and Taufik Kurniawan from the National Mandate Party (PAN) championed the idea for a survey institute law.

The two said there was a need to classify survey institutes as either academic or intellectual bodies and that such bodies should be regulated by law in order to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate results or outright lies.

Tjahjo said the recent establishment of a survey body that measured the electability of political candidates was indicative of the accelerated rate of political liberalization in Indonesia, which he said benefited only wealthy politicians.

“It is undeniable that in a liberal democracy a politician’s popularity and his ability to strengthen it is strongly related to his [financial] capital,” he said.

Tjahjo added that politicians today were well aware of the widespread growth in survey institutes and the often contradictory results they published that sometimes indicated their political interests.

He said that was why recent surveys showed that Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie and Prabowo Subianto, the chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party’s (Gerindra) board of patrons, would be the most popular candidates for president.

Tjahjo also blamed the bias for former president and PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Sukarnoputri’s poor showing in the same polls.

“Of course, not all pollsters take their marching orders blindly from the people who hire them,” he said. “There are still those that remain objective.”

Tjahjo argued that increasing the quality of democracy in Indonesia was more important than debating the need to regulate survey institutes.

“We should not be legalizing liberal concepts while poor people, who we should be protecting, are still without laws guaranteeing their welfare,” he said. “The latter is a much more pressing issue.”

Gerindra politicians also rejected calls to regulate pollsters. Gerindra legislator Martin Hutabarat said it was a low priority.

“Such a law would have no direct bearing on the livelihoods of most Indonesians,” he said.