A survey conducted on the perceptions of Malaysians on MADANI’s two-year administration have recorded half of the participants believing the country is heading in the wrong direction.
A Merdeka Centre survey, recorded that result from 53% of respondents out of 1,207 respondents nationwide.
These participants are above 18 years old and the survey was run from November 27 until December 10.
In terms of the nation’s direction, 47% of respondents have expressed economic concerns of Malaysia, with 16.6% noting the high cost of living while the ones who responded the right direction (39%), noted the improvement in the economy at 10.1%.
Economic concerns decreased this year compared to last year’s 56%.
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Other metrics included in the wrong direction metric were poor and inefficient administration at 8%, concerns over political instability (7%), weak leadership (5%) and racial issues (4%).
Under the problems criteria, economic concerns takes the lead with many respondents at 65%, dropping from 77.8% last year, with inflation (33%) and enhancing economic growth (12%) indicated among the top five concerns in Malaysian voters.
On the other hand, the survey pointed out that concerns regarding instability has
“evaporated” but indicated a slight rise in “identity politics” mainly the preservation of Malay rights/fair treatment of all races at 7%.
Other issues related to the survey were broken down in three categories according to the responses which are economic concerns, political issues and racial problems.
Prevalent issues in the economic concerns category are the high cost of living, minimum income, unfavorable economic conditions in general, unemployment and the weakening of the ringgit.
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In the political issues category, it was noted from highest to lowest concerns are the people’s welfare, political instability and corruption in general.
Lastly in the racial problems category, the survey included racial inequality and lack of unity among Malaysians as the key issues.
Meanwhile, 51% of respondents were satisfied with the current government’s performance while 47% were unsatisfied.
However, Malaysians in the survey were satisfied when it comes to improving ethnic relations (51%), improving government efficiency (49%) and improving the integrity of government officials (47%).
When it came to the aspect of financial aid by the government, there was a tie in responses at 47% but the government ‘s efforts in generating economic growth and addressing cost of living issues indicated higher dissatisfaction rates at 52% and 64% respectively.
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Malaysians also indicated higher dissatisfaction in the government’s bid in fighting corruption at 52% as well as maintaining the law at a dissatisfaction rate of 47%.
Despite the dissatisfaction expressed toward the administration, the respondents indicated high confidence in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with 54% of satisfied responses.
The performance indicators in Anwar’s leadership recorded higher positive responses.
In improving the nation’s image, 59% of respondents in the survey were satisfied while 62% were confident in his ability to attract foreign investors and a somewhat even level of 45% of satisfied respondents in Anwar working hard to strengthen the people’s economy.
Respondents were also confident in Anwar streamlining the nation’s civil service to be efficient and of high integrity at 54%.
