Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:30:00 GMT | By Kee Thuan Chye

BLOG: Najib deserves his ratings drop

According to the Merdeka Centre survey, approval ratings for Najib have dropped from 62 per cent in August to 52 per cent. It is his lowest since September 2009, which was five months after he took over as prime minister. 

 

 

DATO' SERI HJ NAJIB TUN RAZAK - PM MALAYSIA

I asked what it was, and he said, “The latest Merdeka Centre survey findings. Najib’s ratings have dropped 10 points. This shows it’s not just you and I who are saying negative things about him.”
“He deserves it,” I said, emphatically.

According to the Merdeka Centre survey, approval ratings for Najib have dropped from 62 per cent in August to 52 per cent. It is his lowest since September 2009, which was five months after he took over as prime minister. Then, he had ratings of 59 per cent.

The current drop was due to declining belief in him expressed by Malay, Chinese and Indian respondents hailing from different social backgrounds. Of the 1,005 individuals polled from all states throughout Peninsular Malaysia, 41 per cent were dissatisfied with Najib’s performance as prime minister.

Asked how happy they were with the Government, 39 per cent said they were dissatisfied with it and 8 per cent said they were angry with it. Only 38 per cent gave it a nod. This is also a drop of 12 per cent from the 50 per cent who were happy with the Government in August.

“People asked me if the ratings drop was because he’s bringing on GST (goods and services tax),” my friend said, “but I told them no, because that’s coming on only in 2015.”

My friend is right. The main reason is the rising costs of daily living. Electricity tariffs, highway toll rates, assessment rates for Kuala Lumpurians, petrol prices, the price of sugar. They will inevitably snowball into inflation. Transport costs will increase, rents will go up, raw and prepared food prices will rise further, etc, etc. The Malaysian rakyat are not looking forward with cheer to the new year. Goodness knows what other hazards lie in wait.

Another reason is the rakyat’s realisation that the Government makes promises but doesn’t keep them. To give one of its slogans a twist, we say, “Janji tidak ditepati.” (Promises unfulfilled.) It’s interesting to note that the ethnic group that registered the biggest disappointment in Najib was the Indians. From 76 per cent in August, their faith in him has dropped to 57 per cent. That’s a slump of 19 per cent. They must have realised that even with former Hindraf leader P. Waythamoorthy having been made a deputy prime minister through some deal struck between him and Najib, the Indians are still on a losing wicket.

Worse, what another Government slogan says about the needs of the people being considered first (rakyat didahulukan) is turning out to be a lie. How are the people being given priority when they are becoming increasingly burdened with rising prices?

Appropriately then, this ratings drop is a double whammy for Najib. At the last general election (GE13), he led his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to electoral victory but lost the popular vote, garnering 47 per cent compared to the Opposition’s 51 per cent. Now his own popularity has dived. It says a lot about how the people by and large have come to distrust him and his government.