PRIME NEWS POST
The INDONESIAN (JAKARTA) – Claims placing the Indonesian National Police (Polri) as the most corrupt police force in Southeast Asia and 18th most corrupt globally based on IndexMundi data are deeply flawed and scientifically indefensible.
These figures do not reflect objective reality or broader national public opinion, but merely aggregate voluntary perceptions from a small number of online respondents.
Analysis of the source reveals IndexMundi measures nothing more than subjective views of internet users visiting its website. The survey does not account for actual experiences of bribery, the volume of corruption cases, enforcement performance, personnel integrity, or legally proven corruption levels.
The only valid conclusion that can be drawn from the dataset is that 296 self-selected respondents choosing Indonesia gave an average perceived corruption score of 7.56. Assertions that Polri ranks first in Southeast Asia or 18th worldwide are unwarranted, misleading extrapolations.
The core failure lies in methodology that fails to meet standard public survey protocols:
1. Non-representative sampling: No evidence confirms the 296 Indonesian respondents were randomly selected. Participation relies entirely on self-selection by English-speaking website visitors – a non-probability approach that introduces massive bias, ignoring Indonesia’s actual demographic structure.
2. Misleading statistical claims: A stated margin of error of 5.70% creates false scientific credibility; standard error formulas cannot legitimately generalise voluntary online responses to a national population.
3. Total lack of transparency: Core methods remain undisclosed, including data collection dates, duplicate/bot filtering, residency verification, and quality control procedures. Respondents simply select a country name with no independent check on whether they actually reside there.
4. Inconsistent scoring: The final two-decimal precision (7.56) is unsupported by any published scoring formula, even though respondents only chose from five ordinal options ranging from “not a problem” to “very serious problem.”
5. Misleading cross-country rankings: Minimal score differences are framed as dramatic gaps without confidence intervals or statistically significant difference testing. The “most corrupt in Southeast Asia” claim is factually invalid, as IndexMundi only lists 100 nations and excludes several ASEAN members – Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste – entirely.
Given these critical limitations, the public and media are urged to exercise caution and not cite IndexMundi data as an authoritative measure of police corruption or broader Indonesian public sentiment.
Reported from various media sources //photo from Google documents // contribution by Prime News Post international online media // news.paper
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