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ELECTION 2008: Economy top most concern of voters, says survey
03-Mar-2008, New Straits Times
By Lee Siew Lian

KUALA LUMPUR: Rising prices and economic issues top most voters' concerns since election campaigns began, according to a Merdeka Center survey. More than anything else currently, economic issues -- from inflation to job opportunities -- occupy almost two in five minds of voters in Peninsular Malaysia.

"There are other issues but these have receded in importance," said Merdeka Center executive director Ibrahim Suffian. The centre polled 1,024 voters in the peninsula from Feb 24, the day after nomination, until Feb 27. "Basically, as people talk more about economic issues, they talk less about other issues, such as corruption."
They may be taking their cue from the Barisan Nasional's campaign so far, Ibrahim said.

BN has been running advertisements that compared the prices of essential goods in Malaysia favourably with those of its Southeast Asian neighbours, highlighting economic growth and other achievements. Opposition parties, the DAP in particular, are also exploiting fears over surging world oil prices, and their impact on fuel prices at home. While most of those surveyed felt upbeat about conditions in the country generally, three-quarters appeared to be pessimistic about prices of goods and services.

Still, that is up from the lowest point in December, when only 16 per cent said they felt positive about prices. This could be due in part to increments kicking in after the new year, and bonuses being paid out, Ibrahim pointed out. Sentiment among the Chinese also improved in the last two months, which he said could have been due to the Lunar New Year celebrations.

The number of voters who cited economic issues as the country's most important issue soared to about 40 per cent from about 25 per cent since the centre's December poll. Crime and public safety has pulled back to a distant second, cited by about 13 per cent of respondents, and race relations third, a top issue for only 11 per cent. Despite their worries, almost three-quarters said they could make ends meet.

"People can still make ends meet, but they worry over prices that have risen significantly," said Ibrahim. Broken down by race, only one in five Malays said he/she struggled to make ends meet, compared to just over one in three Chinese and nearly half of Indians. Indians are the most pessimistic on this and other economic issues, while the Malays the most optimistic.

Only one in 20 Indians was optimistic about prices, while almost half said prices and other economic issues were the top issues for them in the general election. Those who said they were confident of the government's handling of the economy has also fallen to about one in three, from about half in December. Among the Malays, a quarter said they were optimistic over inflation, while almost two in five cited prices and other economic issues as the top concern.

Confidence in the government among Malays remained high, at 70 per cent. Meanwhile, sentiment over business opportunities has not shifted much but remains mixed, indicating voters' uncertainty over the economic outlook, Ibrahim said. Roughly half of all respondents said they expected favourable conditions for business, which was about the same in December.

Optimistic about race relations

MOST Malaysians are happy with race relations, which has been put on the back burner as an issue in this general election, going by the results of the latest Merdeka Center survey. More than three quarters of the registered voters polled last week said they were optimistic over ethnic relations. Just one in 10 said ethnic relations were the country's top issue, compared with more than one in six in a December survey, which reflected the sentiments that followed the Hindu Rights Action Force demonstrations in November.

Still, concern over racial inequality remained highest among Indians, of whom one in five cited it as his/her top concern. Just one in 10 Chinese and roughly one in 20 Malays put it as their most important issue, according to the survey. The majority of all races was optimistic over race relations, with optimism highest among Malays at 88 per cent. Roughly two in three Chinese and almost three quarters of Indians said they were optimistic.