Kuek Ser Kuang Keng and Soon Li Tsin
Aug 6, 07 Malaysiakini
The dip in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's approval rating,
especially among Chinese Malaysian voters as found in a recent
survey, is the fault of leaders of ruling party Umno, said a former
MCA leader.
Former housing and local government minister Dr Ting Chew Peh said
the Chinese are not happy because of a series of incidents including
the remarks made by deputy premier Najib Abdul Razak, Umno Youth
chief Hishammuddin Hussein and his deputy, Khairy Jamaluddin.
"This is especially true for Hishammuddin who has refused to meet
Chinese educationists Dong Jiao Zong. The Chinese think he is
arrogant," he told malaysiakini.
"So these sentiments will go back to the PM because he is the head
(of the party)," he added.
The Gopeng MP said other reasons such as the sluggish economy and the
'low-key' battle against corruption are contributing to the poor
image of the Abdullah as well.
A recent poll conducted between June 14-20 by Merdeka Centre revealed
that the Chinese are less than impressed with the Abdullah's
performance compared to other ethnic groups.
Chinese least impressed with Pak Lah
The results indicated that only 54 percent the Chinese Malaysians
supported Abdullah administration. However the premier's approval
rating appeared high among the Malay (86 percent) and Indian
Malaysians (71 percent). [See chart here]
On Saturday, Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian attributed the
poor results to the fact that the majority of the Chinese think
Abdullah had failed to keep his election promises.
"They're less confident with the government's ability in fulfilling
the people's aspirations. More Chinese also think that the problem of
the sluggish Malaysian economy can be addressed by having more
opposition leaders in Parliament," he added.
Khairy singled out
Ting's views were echoed by a Chinese guild leader who singled Khairy
out as the person who has cast a negative impression in the Chinese
business community.
The businessman, who declined to be named, said the Chinese business
community at first viewed the Abdullah's son-in-law highly because of
his education and background.
"We thought that being an Oxford graduate he would be more open as we
see him as future leader.
"However, it's the other way around especially with his racist
remarks and demand for more quotas for bumiputeras," he lamented.
The guild leader - who sees Khairy as "very symbolic" in representing
the new Malay leadership - expressed little hope that things will get
better.
"What more can we hope for from him?" he asked.
He added affirmative action such as the New Economic Policy has also
resulted in 'administrative distortion' which prevented Chinese
businesses from functioning properly.
"Like loans to small and medium enterprises. They will argue the
business needs 30 percent bumiputera employees... the NEP becomes the
excuse for everything," he said.
Not easy to reform
Meanwhile, Kota Melaka MP Wong Nai Chee opined that the questions
phrased by the research centre must be looked at first before
attacking Abdullah's popularity.
"It is difficult to say if Chinese are unhappy with Pak Lah's
administration. I don't know what and how the questions were posed to
elicit such answers," said the rising star of MCA.
Despite admitting that certain issues such as police reforms,
independence of the judiciary, action taken against corrupt officials
and public delivery have generated high expectations from the people,
Wong said the Abdullah cannot be solely blamed for this.
"To be fair to the PM, I don't think we gave an impression that we
can resolve these issues in three years. The system has been in place
for so many years, it's not easy to reform.
"Like the police, we can see they are getting tough on their own
boys. You can't say the government has had zero achievement even if
the speed is not up to expectations," he elaborated.
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