Satisfaction with current government improved sharply since Muhyiddin took over, says think tank

PETALING JAYA: Satisfaction with the current government has improved sharply since Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took over the federal government, according to a quarterly survey by a think tank.

Emir Research said that its poll showed that the Government Satisfaction Index (GSI) increased substantially from 0.45 in the first quarter to 0.67 in the third quarter of this year.

It said that the higher level of satisfaction towards the government is likely due to their endorsement of the government’s efforts to balance lives and livelihoods by reopening the economy and announcing stimulus packages while at the same time balancing the measures to mitigate Covid-19 infections and searching for vaccines

Among the objectives of the poll are to profile the rakyat’s worries and track changes

in the national worry index (NWI), assess the rakyat’s hopes and expectations towards the government, and track changes in the GSI among people of different communities and socio-economic statuses.

The poll was conducted in August and involved more than 2,000 respondents from all over the country.

Emir Research also said that the survey found that 65% of respondents said that Muhyiddin was their choice to be the Prime Minister followed by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (10%) and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who was the choice of eight percent of respondents.

"Similar patterns of support were recorded within various demographic groups. However, Muhyiddin had greater support among the urban respondents (68%). Muhyiddin was the preferred vote across the states except in Penang, where Dr Mahathir received the greatest support," it said.

Gender-wise, 73% of female respondents said that they supported Muhyiddin, who also saw large support from younger respondents and Malays and Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak and additionally, 50% of Chinese respondents and 49% of Indian respondents supported Muhyiddin.

When asked about the most important factor dictating their vote, 29% of those surveyed credited the person’s principles.

However, Muhyiddin's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia was only selected by 8.3% of those surveyed as the party they supported, followed by PAS (15.5%) and Umno with 42.8% of the votes while Dr Mahathir's Parti Pejuang Tanah Air came in fourth with 6.2%.