MAKE OR BREAK FOR ZAHID – TIME TO MOVE SWIFTLY ON ‘71% OF DISSATISFIED MALAYS’ – ‘THIS IS WORK THAT MUST BE DONE BY UMNO, NOT PAKATAN BECAUSE AMONG UMNO, PKR & AMANAH, UMNO IS THE BEST BET IN TERMS OF ATTRACTING MALAY VOTERS’ – AND DON’T REPEAT THE SAME OLD UMNO MISTAKE OF USING THE MALAY VS NON-MALAY SPEAR – IT DIDN’T WORK IN GE14 OR GE15 – LET BANKRUPT OF POLITICAL CAPITAL MAHATHIR, HADI & MUHYIDDIN COMMIT THEIR OWN SUICIDES – UMNO MUST INSTEAD SHOW MALAYS A NEW & DIFFERENT PATH

Business, Politics | March 3, 2023 8:47 am by | 0 Comments

Survey may be flawed, but Umno shouldn’t ignore sentiment, say academics

They see ‘71% of Malays dissatisfied’ result as reflecting poorly on the largest Malay party in the government.

The Umno general assembly in session last January.

PETALING JAYA: Two academics have told Umno to take heed of a survey finding that 71% of Malays are dissatisfied with the government although one of them criticised the study as flawed.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara and Azmil Tayeb of Universiti Sains Malaysia said the result reflected poorly on Umno as the largest Malay party in the government.

Azmi told FMT the methodology employed for the 35,000-respondent survey was faulty and the public should not read too much into the result, but he said it was still a valid reminder to Umno that its days of being considered the defender of Malays were long gone with PAS having taken over that role.

“Umno has to do something about this if it is to regain the confidence of Malay voters, and it all depends on this month’s Umno elections,” he said.

He said Umno could reinstill confidence in Malay voters if all the important posts in the party were filled by people who did not come from factions opposed to and supportive of party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Last month, Azmi had said Umno should focus on attracting voters by shedding itself of its “perception of corruption” and getting rid of its long-embedded culture of money politics.

He did not mention Zahid, but the Umno president is under pressure to step down as deputy prime minister because he faces charges of money laundering, criminal breach of trust and bribery in an ongoing court case.

Zahid’s decision to drop several big names from contesting in the last general election led to a divide in Barisan Nasional before the polls and he was blamed for the coalition’s poor showing.

“If Umno’s members choose the pro or anti-Zahid group, Umno will go back to square one and there will be no difference in terms of Malay voters’ confidence,” said Azmi.

“This is work that must be done by Umno, not Pakatan Harapan, because among Umno, PKR and Amanah, Umno is the best bet in terms of attracting Malay voters.”

Azmil told FMT he believed the low approval rating from Malays in the survey stemmed from the “existing dislike of a majority of Malay voters” for the government.

“The GE15 result is a testament to the low popularity of Umno among the Malay electorate and it is now indicated in the survey result,” he said.

“The only way Umno can deal with this is to push out Zahid. But it’s easier said than done, especially now that he has managed to consolidate his hold over the party by purging his rivals.”

Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and former Selangor Umno chief Noh Omar were sacked from the party in January for breaching party discipline during GE15.

Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein and former Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan are among those suspended for six years.anban, the survey found only 15% of Malay respondents were satisfied with the government’s efforts to fulfil the 15th general election manifesto while 71% were dissatisfied.

The unity government is composed of PH, BN,Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah with support from MPs from Muda, Warisan, Parti Bangsa Malaysia and independents. They all campaigned for GE15 with different manifestos.

The survey was criticised by communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil on Tuesday. He said it was dishonest and flawed since 81% of the samples were males, an inaccurate reflection of the country’s voter base.

The head of Universiti Utara Malaysia’s Malaysian Institute of Political Analysis, Mashitah Udin, said the survey respondents were not representative of the electorate since they picked from among the audiences of the five news organisations.

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