Public confidence in Pakatan already shaky prior to govt’s collapse

MM Online:

Think-tank poll indicates public confidence in Pakatan already shaky prior to govt’s collapse

EMIR’s chief executive officer and president Datuk Rais Hussin said the index was developed due to the PH government’s failure to quickly and urgently address the bread-and-butter issues faced by Malaysians

Picture by Shafwan Zaidon 

KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — A recent survey by a local think-tank has revealed that many Malaysians were unsure of the country’s direction, economy and living conditions leading up to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February.

The poll by EMIR Research for the first quarter of 2020 was conducted from January 15 to February 24, which was the day of the collapse. It involved 2,002 respondents from the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.

“More than half of Malaysians, or 55 per cent, are unsure whether the country’s future direction is on the right track. When added to the 25 per cent of Malaysians who categorically say that the country’s future direction is on the wrong track, it gets more worrisome,” said EMIR’s chief executive officer and president Datuk Rais Hussin in the survey’s summary report.

He said this is especially pronounced when compared to the baseline findings of 50 per cent who were unsure, which indicated a worsening of the worry climate.

EMIR’s National Worry Index (NWI) factors in five aspects, namely mitigating costs of living, enhancing the quality of living, creating credible jobs, ensuring affordable homes, and enabling affordable healthcare.

Rais said the index was developed due to the failure of the PH government to quickly and urgently address these bread-and-butter issues.

“In our Inaugural Poll completed in November last year, these five tenets of a perut (stomach) economy had contributed to the NWI of 0.77, which denotes a marginally maximum worried rakyat.

“In the current poll, the NWI has moved one notch up to 0.78, worsening the worry climate among the rakyat who were already at a maximum worried,” he said.

Overall, Rais said the most pressing issues on the public’s mind is centred on the nation’s well-being, measured by the barometers of whether the country’s future direction is on the right track, whether the economy is on a strong footing, whether the rakyat’s family’s life is better now than previously, and whether living condition will improve in the future.

He explained that EMIR Research initially planned to conduct a press conference on the poll in April, but the ascension of the Perikatan Nasional government under Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin on March 1 and the subsequent movement control order (MCO) on March 18 to combat the Covid-19 pandemic led to a change of plans. Both instances occurred while the poll was in its data-entry and analysis stages.

“With the Covid-19 crisis brewing and even before the MCO was instituted, Malaysians were already less confident in the economy when only 19 per cent or 26 per cent in the baseline poll, considers the economy is on a strong footing vis-à-vis 36 per cent or 30 per cent in the baseline poll who finds the economy is not on a strong footing, and a sizeable 45 per cent are unsure of what state the economy is in.

“These figures will definitely worsen with the MCO in place, and whether or not we will see an improvement on the confidence of the rakyat in the economy will depend on how successful the present government mitigates the pandemic, and how effective its exit strategy to restart the economy would be,” Rais said.

Thanks Dad