SHAH ALAM, 20 Dec: The economy, security and education are the three important issues that the government has failed to resolve until now, making it the reason why Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s popularity has declined.
This includes the involvement of family, especially his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, in several matters concerning the government, which has added more stress to the situation.
The Member of Parliament for Sungai Petani, Datuk Johari Abdul, said that weaknesses which have failed to be corrected, as reported in the Auditor General’s Report, has resulted in the leakage in public funds, which has invited scepticism, coupled with the unpopular move the increase the prices of goods, one after the other.
“I think that this is not wise because he has a clear opportunity to strengthen the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), in addition to providing adequate authority to the Chief Secretary of the Government (KSN) to take action.
“However, it is too late. The government finally issued unpopular policies such as raising the prices of goods, such as electricity tariffs, toll, and the withdrawal of subsidies for sugar and oil,” he told Selangor Kini yesterday.
The Merdeka Centre survey found that Najib’s approval rate among voters plummeted 20 points to 52 percent this month compared to August.
The study was conducted among 1,005 respondents, consisting of voters, who are from the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities in Peninsular Malaysia, between 4 and 12 December.
Johari said that security and weak action in curbing the crime index has triggered concern among the people, leading to Najib’s loss of popularity.
He said that the impact of the weakness in security has also resulted in the people having to compete with immigrants and affecting their livelihood.
“In addition, the drop in national education standards has resulted in it being second from the bottom in Southeast Asia when the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed more weaknesses in Najib’s administration in promoting education among the people of Malaysia,” he said.
