Purbaya's Google Search Intensity Nears Prabowo's, IndexPolitica Notes

Public attention to Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa is considered to have started to move from just a position to a personal figure. IndexPolitica Indonesia said that the pattern of searching for the name Purbaya on Google began to approach the intensity of searching for President Prabowo Subianto. Researcher of IndexPolitica Indonesia Denny Charter said that the phenomenon can be seen from the pattern of public search in Indonesia. "This is not just about how many Purbaya names are searched. What is interesting is when a former official begins to receive search attention that is close to a President," Denny said in a written statement received in Jakarta, Tuesday, September 22. According to Denny, this pattern shows that Purbaya's popularity is beginning to form personally and is no longer solely attached to the position he once held. Denny said the IndexPolitica digital conversation analysis also found differences in the character of the conversation about the two figures. According to the analysis, conversations about Purbaya have more positive associations, while conversations about Prabowo are more often related to government, policies, and political controversies. The findings are an analysis of IndexPolitica. The submitted manuscript does not include detailed figures regarding the comparison of search volume and the methodology of measuring sentiment. Denny compared the emergence of personal attention to Purbaya with the pattern of the emergence of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ahead of the 2004 election. However, he emphasized that the two cannot be compared. "Today's Purbaya cannot be equated with SBY 2004. But the initial pattern is interesting to observe, the emergence of figures from the government circle who later gained personal popularity outside the current power structure," he said. According to Denny, this phenomenon is more appropriately read as a process of forming political figures rather than just paying attention to former officials. He said the development of public attention to Purbaya still needed to be seen further and it was too early to conclude that it would follow SBY's political journey in 2004. Source: VOI English