He is most popular among Muslim Bumiputeras, followed by the Dayaks and Chinese respectively
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem -File Photo
KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem is enjoying a 74 per cent approval rating from Sarawakians, according to a public survey.
The Sarawak Good Governance Public Opinion Survey, conducted by Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research on 606 respondents, showed Adenan’s popularity rating among the various communities as follows: 82 per cent (Muslim Bumiputera community), 74 per cent (Dayak community) and 67 per cent (Chinese community).
Merdeka Centre Programme director Ibrahim Suffian confirmed these figures with The Borneo Post yesterday after holding a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The top three reasons for Adenan’s high rating, according to the survey, are good administration, taking care of the people’s welfare, and positive leadership quality.
While the introduction of the GST had heightened concerns over the state of the economy and financial security of the public, the pollster found that corruption remained the top concern among the respondents, followed by the government’s need to create more jobs and expand public infrastructure.
Sixty-seven per cent of the respondents are confident in Adenan’s commitment to fight corruption; likewise, the same number believed that the government had the political will to fight corruption. Local academicians, Associate Professor Dr Andrew Aeria and Dr Jeniri Amir, however, have a different take on the ‘feel good’ outcome of this public poll.
Aeria, from the Department of Political Studies, Unimas, believed Adenan’s popularity would change the political landscape of Sarawak. He believed the Chinese would return to the BN fold, based on the numbers contained in the survey.
“The numbers shown are very high. It has been a long time since BN politicians see such a high number. Adenan should be quite happy,” said Aeria.
He opined that if the state election were held tomorrow, state BN would win by a landslide. However, if it were held next year, he would not be able to predict as no one knows what issues might crop up then.
On support from the Chinese community, Aeria said such a popular rating for Adenan meant the DAP would face a difficult task in the state election, which must be called by June next year.
“Based on the numbers, the Chinese will turn to support BN,” said Aeria. Jeniri, a senior lecturer of the Department of Communication Studies, Unimas, however, believed that the popularity of Adenan would not change the state’s political landscape.
Describing the outcome of the survey as “not a surprise”, Jeniri noted that the 13-step reforms taken by Adenan had resonated well with the people of Sarawak. He said the survey no doubt indicated that Sarawakians were happy with the performance of Adenan, but cautioned that such a popularity rating would not necessarily translate into votes.
As such, Jeniri believed that the state BN performance would remain status quo in the coming state polls.
“Based on his popular rating, my bet is that the state BN’s popular votes will only increase from 55 per cent in the last election to 60 per cent in coming election.”
The swing back of five per cent, he believed, would be from the Bumiputera fence sitters because the Chinese community would remain adamant with their political decision.
“The popular rating among the Chinese does not mean it will turn into votes. Generally, the Chinese still prefer to have check and balance in the state assembly,” said Jeniri.
He pointed out that the Chinese community would want to maintain the current status quo for the good of the state as they believed there would not be check and balance if the state government became too strong.
“Come the next state election, the number of seats retained by state BN will be more or less the same even though Adenan’s popularity is high.
“State BN may win back one or two seats, but it may also lose one or two,” opined Jeniri. He predicted that PBB seats would still be the fortress for BN, but seats involving component parties SPDP and SUPP might experience problems for the state BN due to the presence of BN friendly parties UPP and Teras.
“The problems faced by BN are from within. On a whole, state BN will still be able to keep its two-third majority,” said Jeniri.