2006-2010

Malaysiakini | 01-July-2009: Race or religion shouldn’t be a criteria and if the candidate was a she, they really wouldn’t mind. This is the opinion of Malaysian youths when asked on the specifics of who should occupy the prime minister’s seat.

The Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research’s latest poll released today revealed that more than half of the Malaysian youths were open to having a prime minister who was not a Malay Muslim and that gender does not matter.

Slightly less than half of those polled said they don’t see being a Muslim a priority in selecting the country’s prime minister.

The Centre’s National Youth Survey was carried out last year among 2,518 youths whose age ranged from 20-35 years.

The poll proved that Malaysian youths are well-informed, with nearly half of those polled reading the newspapers more than four days a week.

The results also revealed that 53 percent of Malaysian youths tend to obtain their news and information from watching television.

Malaysian youths’ use of the Internet skyrocketed from 57 percent in 2007 to 70 percent in 2008. However, only 44 percent of them obtained their news and information from the web, spending an average of 45 minutes to two hours daily online.

Reactions towards the mainstream media tipped towards the more unfavourable side with 49 percent of youths claiming that they do not trust the mainstream media’s reporting as opposed to the 46 percent who do.

When asked whether they felt they could make a difference in solving community problems, only 36 percent of them thought that they could make an impact. This is a marginal decrease from the 39 percent registered in the 2007 polls.

Youths still not voting

Voting is still not a high priority for Malaysian youths, with a whopping 44 percent of them still unregistered.

Interestingly, the number of unregistered voters declines as the age bracket goes higher. Asked why they had yet to register, the respondents said they were ‘too busy’ or were ‘indifferent towards politics’.

The trend of having multiracial political parties seems to have been heartily embraced by Malaysian youths with 77 percent of those could vote saying they voted for a multiracial party which could represent all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity or religion.

Forty-six percent of youths want a political party that could improve the state of the country by managing the economy effectively followed by 29 percent who wanted corruption to be curbed.

On another front, most of the non-bumiputera youths polled expressed an interest in migrating to another country with Chinese and Indian youths leading the pack. This represents one in four youths who have thoughts of residing elsewhere.

A majority of the youths identified themselves as Malaysians first and foremost, followed by their religion while only a small fraction identified themselves based on their ethnic group.

There was also a slight increase of five percent of youths who believed that any government decision would impact their lives.

The poll also revealed a significant decrease in the number of youths who believe that their votes would make a difference in influencing the government. This constitutes a 16 percent fall.

New Sabah times | KOTA KINABALU, 01-July-2009: Malaysian youths in general appear to be well informed on current issues but they remain politically disconnected as found in a nationwide opinion poll released yesterday.

The poll found out that much as our youths felt that government decisions have a lot of impact in their daily lives, there is little their votes could do to influence the government.

The National Youth Survey 2008 was conducted by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research funded by the Asia Foundation to gauge youths views on lifestyle, values, current issues and politics, and their own levels of civic and social involvement.

The poll was carried out from Nov 13 to Dec 9 last year on a total of 2,518 randomly selected youths nationwide aged between 20 and 35 years old.

“This is the third consecutive year we have conducted this poll and we hope the data would help policymakers, grassroots advocacy groups and youth organisations to understand the needs of young people and address their concerns based on factual findings,” said Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research programme director Ibrahim Suffian.

On self-efficacy and politics, the poll identified 74 per cent of youths as having low and moderate levels of self-efficacy.

“Although the perceived impact the government had on their daily lives increased from 72 per cent in 2007 to 77 per cent last year, the confidence youths had in elections saw a decline of 16 per cent, in which 64 per cent believed their votes would make a difference last year compared to 80 per cent in 2007,” he said.

Ibrahim said ethnicity and backgrounds contributed to significant differences in the level of self-efficacy among the youths.

For instance, he said the majority of ethnic Chinese who attended Chinese schools were found to express lower levels of self-efficacy, where some felt there was not much they could do for the community.

“On the other hand, Indian respondents who attended Tamil schools and embraced Hinduism showed the highest level of self-efficacy; they felt there is much they could do.

“Malays and other Bumiputera held moderate views in regards to their ability to influence the government,” he said.

He said if voter registration was taken as an indicator of political involvement, the poll showed that such involvement was considered moderate as only 55 per cent of the youths interviewed were registered voters.

The poll also showed that young Malaysians had mixed views on political pluralism.

56 per cent said they would accept a female becoming prime minister and 57 per cent could accept a non-Malay Muslim prime minister.

On political diversity, 51 per cent of youths from the Peninsular favoured political diversity whereas 58 per cent of East Malaysian respondents favoured the idea of being united under the Barisan Nasional.

“Nonetheless, the survey finds that 77 per cent youths showed a stronger preference for a multi-racial party that is able to represent the interests of Malaysians regardless of ethnicity or religion,” said Ibrahim.

New Straits Times Online | KOTA KINABALU, 01-July-2009: Malaysian youth today are less interested in inter-racial issues and would like to see politicians deal with other issues like managing the economy, fighting corruption and listening more to the people.

They are also more likely to support a multiracial party that represents the interests of all Malaysians, regardless of religion or race.

These were the findings of a national youth survey carried out last year among 2,518 people aged between 20 and 35, of various backgrounds based on the national population profile.

The survey showed that although the youth were well-informed on current issues from various media, many remained politically disconnected and felt there was little they and their vote could do to make a difference to their communities.

This was due to a 16 per cent decline in confidence in elections from 80 per cent from the previous year’s survey to just 64 per cent this time.
The young were also not against the idea of a female prime minister as 56 per cent indicated acceptance.

About 57 per cent were agreeable to a non-Malay Muslim as prime minister while 45 per cent were willing to accept a non-Muslim premier.

Racial or religious polarisation was more likely in the peninsula as 38 per cent still identified themselves first as a follower of a religion.

The majority, at 43 per cent, mostly in Sabah and Sarawak, considered themselves Malay-sians first.

As many as 44 per cent of the youth were not registered to vote. The reasons given ranged from their busy schedule or commitments to an indifferent or negative attitude towards politics.

In the poll, 79 per cent of the youth did not belong to any organisation. The 511 respondents who did would rather join a sports or recreational club.

Based on the condition of the country at present, the youth were split between deciding whether the country was on the right or wrong track. But many were grateful for the relative peace and increased democratic competition in politics.

But they also felt the political bickering and economic downturn were signs of a weak leadership.

Research officer Lee Lih Qing presented the findings to the media here yesterday.

The poll was conducted by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, with support from the Asia Foundation.

It was the third consecutive year the survey had been carried out.

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NEWS RELEASE 30 JUNE 2009: Merdeka Center poll: Youth well informed but politically disconnected

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NEWS RELEASE 9 JUNE 2010: Malaysian voters have mixed views on government KPIs - survey.

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Bru Direct – Brunei | 04-June-2009

Pg Kasmirhan Pg Hj Tahir. – P. MARILYN

Major Shift Seen

Bandar Seri Begawan – Brunei’s anti-corruption cops are to put the screws on crooked businessmen instead of civil servants who are comparatively clean.
Findings showed that the business and the private sector in Brunei are perceived to be the most affected by corruption, which stands at 44 per cent as opposed to public officials and civil servants at 33 per cent.

Brunei’s Anti Corruption Bureau Chief Pg Kasmirhan Pg Hj Tahir said in view of this, Brunei’s ACB has plans to revamp its legislations and strategies for the next five years to shift its anti-corruption focus towards the private sector.

Meanwhile a global survey has placed Brunei third in fighting corruption.

Brunei’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has added another feather on its cap as findings from the Global Corruption Barometer, the only worldwide public opinion survey on views and experiences of corruption, ascertained that Brunei is generally ranked second behind Singapore in terms of corruption.

Classified under the Asia-Pacific region, Brunei achieved an average score of 2.3 while Singapore, one of the cleanest and corruption free countries in the world, achieved an average score of 2.2. A score of 5 signifies extremely corrupt.

Brunei Darussalam also ranked third in terms of effectiveness in current government action in the fight against corruption after Singapore and Hong Kong in the Asia Pacific region.

Director Pg Kasmirhan credited this positive ranking to ACB’s zero tolerance on corruption and its continuous efforts to educate people and civil servants on the dangers of corruption and help them understand loopholes, especially in the public sector where services and processes are prone to corruption.

Despite Brunei’s positive ranking on corruption worldwide, the Global Corruption Barometer, however, discovered a change in trend whereby the public sector in Brunei is no longer considered the most affected by corruption.

Findings showed that the business/private sector instead is perceived to be the most affected by corruption, which stands at 44 per cent as opposed to public officials/civil servants at 33 per cent.

In view of this, Brunei’s ACB has plans to revamp its legislations and strategies for the next five years to shift its anti-corruption focus towards the private sector.

“This is a very interesting finding as it correlates very much with countries that are usually regarded as more developed such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, where the public sees that it is not government officials that are more corrupt but instead the business people,” Pg Kasmirhan said during a press conference yesterday.

“This in fact tells us that we should now shift our focus to private sector corruption rather than just focusing on corruption in the government sector.

“We are now reviewing our strategy for the next five years and are shifting our focus to include private sector corruption as well,” the director said.

“When the ACB was first set up in 1982, our main focus was actually to ensure that there is no corruption in the government sector but now the private sector plays a very important role in the diversification of our economy and we are now seeing that the private sector is an important stakeholder in our fight against corruption,” he added.

However, this should not be completely seen as a setback as the increase in corruption in the business/private sectors denotes a trend when a country moves forward from developing to developed, private sector corruption is bound to increase.

In other words, business activities are picking up in the private sector in Brunei as experienced by Singapore and Hong Kong and other developed countries.

The director also took into account the lack of governance, lack of internal control and greed that contributed to the increase in business/private sectors corruption.

“That’s the reason why we are revamping our legislation. We are extending our jurisdiction of government linked companies for which the bureau has power to investigate.

Corruption in Brunei only second to Singapore “This does not mean that we were not able to investigate private sector corruption before. We have been investigating but our main focus before was very much on the government sector,” the director explained.

In terms of bribery, Brunei also has a positive ranking of six per cent or less, together with Singapore, Denmark, countries that are seen to be least corrupt.

“I am very pleased with the findings and as far as Brunei is concerned, it is a very positive result. We always benchmark ourselves with the least corrupt country in the region, Singapore and Hong Kong. Brunei’s ACB is very committed to improving this ranking and hopefully as time goes by, we can improve this further,” he added.

As of May 2009, the ACB has opened 70 investigation papers, out of which 57 were completed and 48 sent to the Attorney General for prosecution.

In comparison, 59 investigation papers were opened, 41 were completed and 17 were sent to the Attorney General for prosecution in 2008.

Though there is an increase in numbers, this however signifies the public’s courage in reporting incidences of corruption through channels such as the ACB website, hotlines, Facebook and others.

This year marks Brunei’s first entry into the Global Corruption Barometer Survey Report, put together by Transparency International; a global civil society organization with more than 90 locally established national chapters and chapters-in-formation, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

The global corruption barometer is a public opinion survey that actually assesses the general public’s perception and experiences of corruption and bribery.

Altogether, 73,132 individuals worldwide responded to the survey.

As a public opinion survey, the barometer reflects the views of a representative sample of each country’s population aged 16 and above.

The survey in Brunei was conducted by Merdeka Centre through telephone between February 20-25 2009 involving 820 respondents. – Adapted from Borneo Bulletin

The Star online | PUTRAJAYA, 03-June-2009 : Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is confident the National Economic Advisory Council can help the Government turn Malaysia’s economy from middle to high income.

The former prime minister, who described the setting up of the council as a “wonderful idea,” said the aim to have a new economic model would be possible with the help and advice of experts in the body.

He was speaking to reporters at the “Nurturing the Minds of Future Leaders” essay contest at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here on Wednesday.

On April 9, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the setting up of the council, to be headed by a chairman with ministerial status, while its members would comprise local and foreign economic experts.

The council, headed by former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Amirsham Abdul Aziz, will advise the Government in creating a new economic model for Malaysia based on innovation, creativity and adding high value.

On the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research survey where 45% of 1,067 registered voters in peninsular Malaysia were satisfied with Najib’s performance in politics, the economy and social issues, Dr Mahathir said it was good and must be seen as an “indication” of his popularity as leader since he took office.

He said many things could be done to spur the economy but declined to comment when asked if the Government was doing enough.

Dr Mahathir also said that the Government should not relent to pressure by certain quarters in calling for the return of the 85-year-old former communist leader Chin Peng.

Strait Times – Singapore | 02-June-2009 – But Malaysian PM’s efforts to remake govt seen to be gaining the backing of Indians

The chaos overshadowed Mr Najib’s efforts to tackle longstanding grievances such as the pro-Malay economic policies and disputes over religious conversion. — PHOTO: AP

KUALA LUMPUR – PREMIER Najib Razak’s efforts to win back support have some way to go yet as only 45 per cent of Malaysians say they are satisfied with his performance, a survey by an independent pollster revealed yesterday.

His approval rating improved by only one percentage point from just before he became Prime Minister on April 3, despite his resolute attempts to remake the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration into a people-friendly government.

There was, however, a silver lining. The survey showed a dramatic increase in support from the Indian community, indicating that measures targeted at the community have had an impact.

There is also a growing optimism about the direction that Malaysia is taking, compared with a year ago.

The survey, conducted about 1-1/2 months after Datuk Seri Najib became Premier, is a quarterly one by the Merdeka Centre.

‘The rating was a bit lower than expected, but his first month was a mixed bag. There were many positive things, but people were also not happy with the Perak situation and related arrests,’ said its director Ibrahim Suffian.

He was referring to the political chaos that had embroiled Perak since the Pakatan Rakyat government was toppled through defections in February. The BN became the new government amid widespread dissatisfaction among Malaysians.

The chaos overshadowed Mr Najib’s efforts to tackle longstanding grievances such as the pro-Malay economic policies and disputes over religious conversion.

Since he became Premier, he has removed the bumiputera quotas for 27 sub-sectors of the service industry, banned forced conversion of children to Islam, and reached out to the aggrieved minority communities.

The release of five Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders, and the ban on forced conversions which affected mostly Hindu families, appeared to have helped win back some support from the Indians.

Read the full story in The Straits Times on Tuesday.

carolynh@sph.com.sg

The Malaysian Insider | 02-June-2009 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) should be concerned.

No, not about the shabby turnout of voters in the Penanti by-election or the perverse logic by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin that Barisan Nasional (BN) was the real victor in Sunday’s electoral contest.

Or the chest thumping editorials in the mainstream media on how BN had a significant impact on the by-election even without fielding a candidate.

The 46.1 per cent turnout was the result of a one-sided contest.

Teams play in sparsely populated stadia when the outcome of a competition has been settled. So it was expected that many voters would not get out of their night clothes on a lazy Sunday once it became clear that PKR’s Mansor Othman was running against himself.

Muhyiddin’s bombast is akin to Tyson Gay sitting out the 100 metre dash and then rejoicing because Usain Bolt did not shatter the world record.

It is just another logic busting statement by a ruling coalition politician.

And about the boast in the mainstream media, while it is true that no one stood on the BN ticket in Penanti, judging by the space given to her accusations of bribery in the newspapers, no one could be faulted for reaching the conclusion that Aminah Abdullah was a proxy BN candidate.

She was trounced, losing her deposit and self respect among voters who viewed her as nothing more than a plant by the ruling coalition.

Even if the turnout had been 80 per cent, she would have ended up donating her deposit to the Election Commission.

So disregard all the sour grape comments by the BN.

Penanti has come and gone and Pakatan Rakyat is celebrating another by-election victory, the fifth since Election 2008.

But Pakatan Rakyat should be concerned — by the green shoots of confidence a growing number of Malaysians have in the direction of the economy and the Najib administration’s handling of the economy.

The headline figure in a survey by the Merdeka Center, an independent polling house, showed that only 45 per cent of Malaysians were satisfied with his performance as the prime minister.

Nearly 40 per cent did not want to answer the question, perhaps out of fear or due to the short period he has been in power.

Quite clearly, Najib is not benefitting from the bounce which usually accompanies a new leader into office.

Much of this is down to the baggage he lugged into office, some down to the residue of anger and cynicism among Malaysians after years of broken promises of the Abdullah administration.

Still, Opposition leaders would do well to look beyond the headline statistic and examine other parts of the survey closely.

Especially the parts that show that the economy is the main concern of Malaysians and in that sphere there is growing support for the administration.

In March, 35 per cent of the Malaysians felt that the country was in the right direction and 36 per cent were satisfied with the state of the nation.

The recent survey of 1.076 Malaysians shows that these figures have improved to 42 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.

The confidence in the Malaysian economy has inched up from 24 per cent in March to 39 per cent in May while 47 per cent per cent of those polled expressed optimism that the economy will be in a better state a year from now, compared with 31 per cent in a similar poll done in March.

The point is that if the Najib administration’s handling of the economic downturn inspires more confidence on the ground, more fence-sitters (those voters who are not strongly affiliated to any political party) may be willing to give Umno/BN a wider berth.

This swing could have an impact on voting trends in future.

The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, 01-June-2009 – Bread and butter plus security issues are at the top of Malaysian minds, the first public opinion poll conducted since Datuk Seri Najib Razak took over as prime minister two months ago revealed.

Independent pollster Merdeka Centre carried out a survey last month to track the public’s views on current issues and national leadership. One thousand and sixty-seven randomly selected registered voters aged 21 and above were interviewed at the height of the Perak political disputes in court and the start of the deadly H1N1 flu outbreak.

Three out of 10 Peninsular Malaysians polled said they were most worried about the way the economy is headed, citing, among others, “unfavourable economic conditions in general”, the climbing prices of goods and the fear of not landing a job.

Their second biggest worry is the growing incidence of social problems among youngsters ranging from the increasingly volatile road bully culture of “Mat Rempits” and moral decline to drug abuse.

This is followed closely by concern over crime and their personal safety while in public areas, brought on by the increased presence of foreign workers.

Interestingly, close to a quarter of those polled expressed optimism that the general economy is getting better with Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, at the helm.

Almost half the people questioned are confident the economy will be on the upswing in one year’s time.