BN has to do more to win back Chinese youth
Advertisement
BARISAN Nasional still has its work cut out to convince young Chinese to vote for the rulling coalition in the 14th general election, as dissatisfaction against the government ranked highest among them, a recent survey showed.
The Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research found that young Chinese voters were the most dissatisfied with the current government’s performance.
Of the 604 youth polled in Peninsular Malaysia, 67% of Chinese felt the current government was headed in the wrong direction compared with 60% of Indians and 54% of Malays.
They also polled the highest in dissatisfaction with the government at 78% compared with 65% of Indians and 64% of Malays.
Almost eight out 10 Chinese disapproved of the government’s efforts to improve public safety compared with 47% of Indians and 32% of Malays.
Another area they felt the current government had not done enough was in maintaining harmony between people of different races. Sixty per cent of the Chinese were unhappy compared with 35% of Indians and 26% of Malays.
On the question of reducing corruption, 84% of the Chinese were frustrated with government’s efforts to fight graft compared with 67% of Indians and 65% of Malays.
On the development of public infrastructure, 45% of the Chinese found it wanting compared with 25 % of Indians and 17% of Malays.
Among the issues Chinese youth were most concerned with were inflation, corruption and crime.
Chinese youth were also the most concerned over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd issue (8%) and allegations against the integrity of Prime Minister Najib Razak (7%), compared to their counterparts of other races.
Only 6% of Malays listed 1MDB as a worry, while 5% listed the prime minister’s integrity as an issue.
Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research programme director Ibrahim Suffian said Chinese were not satisfied because when they look at politics, they base it on performance. – September 20, 2017.