Will vaccine give Muhyiddin’s popularity a shot in the arm?

 

Only 35% of respondents in a recent survey see Muhyiddin Yassin as a viable leader, down from 43% in August last year. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: You know you should be worried if you are a politician and a survey shows your popularity has dropped, especially if the pollster is someone from your party.

If you are Muhyiddin Yassin, you had better prepare for the worst.

That is why the prime minister has to improve his understanding of the needs of the public before implementing his policies, says political analyst Sivamurugan Pandian of Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Sivamurugan told FMT the only way for Muhyiddin to improve his popularity was to give top priority to the public’s needs.

Sivamurugan Pandian.

He was commenting on a survey carried out by a think tank headed by Rais Hussin of PPBM. The results show that the prime minister’s rating was good in his first six months in office, when Covid-19 numbers were low, but plummeted in the five months leading to December.

People have apparently been turned off by the declining economy and the health scare.

One PPBM member told FMT the Covid-19 vaccine, if successfully rolled out, could become Muhyiddin’s saviour and allow him to regain his popularity.

But Sivamurugan said he believed this would be possible only if the people’s needs were met and their problems resolved.

He noted that Muhyiddin was still trying to give assistance to the rakyat through various stimulus packages but said there should be a targetted plan.

He suggested that the government improve the delivery system between agencies that formulate policies, those that implement them and those who look after the target groups.

“If these can be aligned, there would be better communication between the government and the people,” he said.

Rais Hussin.

Rais, who is a PPBM supreme council member and the party’s head of strategy, agrees. He told FMT the government needed to improve the way it communicates its policies.

Rais’ survey shows that 35% of the respondents see Muhyiddin’s government as viable, down from 43% last August.

The portion of those who agree that political leaders in the country have “moral problems” has risen from 49% to 62%.

The PPBM member who spoke of the possibility of Muhyiddin being saved by the Covid-19 vaccine said his case contrasted with that of former prime minister Najib Razak, who remained popular despite constant attacks by the opposition before the 2018 polls.

“Despite the 1MDB scandal, Najib held on to his popularity by helping the rakyat and fighting hard to stay relevant. He kept engaging with people. He had many ideas and he implemented them.”

He said Najib also had a good cybertrooping force.

He said Muhyiddin might want to call for a general election once the Covid-19 vaccine ushered in the feel-good factor.

However, he said, the prime minister had “a lot of battles” to worry about. He gave the example of the public’s frustration over the apparent immunity from prosecution enjoyed by ministers and deputy ministers breaching Covid-19 rules.

He said Muhyiddin should work on negating the popular perception that a double standard was being applied. - FMT