Pak Lah terus Merudum II

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s standing among the Indian community has taken a severe beating according to a survey released recently.

Based on the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research survey, Indians approval for Abdullah had dropped from 79% in October to only 38% in December.

This has dragged Abdullah’s overall approval rating to an all time low of 61% since a high of 91% in November 2004.

Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian said the sudden drop in approval ratings was due likely to the Hindraf issue since an earlier survey before November did not capture a negative swing among the Indians.

“It is likely the Hindraf rally has changed the mood of Indian voters,” said Ibrahim, adding that the survey however did not provide conclusive explanation for the drop in approval.

Hindraf became a household name among Indians after the movement’s mass rally on Nov 25 which saw 30,000 Indians demonstrating for equality and an end to discrimination.

The survey was carried out for five days starting on Dec 14 – a day after the detention of five Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act – and involved 1,026 registered voters selected via random stratified sampling.

Other than the Indians, the survey showed Abdullah losing the approval of the Malays and Chinese which saw a reduction of 8% and 5% respectively when compared to the October survey.

Pessimistic on economy

On the economy, less than 50% of respondents optimistic that the economy would improve over the next one year.

The Chinese were the least optimistic as only 19% of respondents believe they will see improvement in the economy while the Malays (53%) were the most optimistic.

On average, only 41% of respondents believe that the economy would improve.

The survey also showed top three issues affecting voters were price hikes and inflation (20%), racial issues and inequality (17%) and crime and public safety (12%).

Asked if they were satisfied with the government to solve the price hikes and inflation problem, 70% of respondents replied “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied”.

Source: malaysiakini.com