AS political opinions increasingly play out on social media timelines and instant online polls, it is easy to assume that faster and cheaper data equals better insight. But according to Ilham Centre, some of Malaysia’s most decisive political signals still come from a method many consider outdated: face-to-face interviews.
Ilham Centre director Hisommudin Bakar said the think tank has deliberately retained in-person fieldwork as its core methodology, despite rising costs, because online and phone-based surveys risk distorting Malaysia’s political reality.
“Malaysia’s voter context is very different from developed countries. There is still a wide urban–rural gap in terms of internet access, information flow and political culture," he told Sinar Harian in an exclusive interview recently.
He said in many rural areas, internet coverage remains unstable and social media usage is limited. If political surveys rely solely on online or phone methods, these voters are effectively excluded even though they make up a significant and influential voting bloc.
“When you remove these groups from your data, you are not just missing numbers. You are erasing entire communities from the political narrative,” he said.
Ilham Centre primarily conducts quantitative research through face-to-face interviews, supported by qualitative data. According to Hisommudin, this approach allows researchers to engage voters more accurately across different social and cultural backgrounds.
“Political literacy and understanding of questions are not uniform.Through face-to-face interviews, questions can be clarified without changing their meaning. This reduces misunderstandings and inaccurate answers.
“In our context, human interaction still matters,” he said.
He added that cultural factors also play a role.
Malaysian voters, he said, tend to respond more honestly when interacting with another person, compared to channels they may view as distant or untrustworthy.
While Ilham Centre’s research teams are relatively small, Hisommudin said methodological discipline and careful sampling are what give their findings weight.
For national-level studies, Ilham Centre typically surveys between 1,200 and 2,000 respondents, while state-level studies involve around 800 to 1,200 respondents, depending on the state’s diversity.
Sampling is done using a stratified approach based on state, urban–rural location, ethnicity, gender and age, so that the sample mirrors the actual voter structure.
Margins of error usually fall between 3 and 5 per cent, but Hisommudin stressed that numbers alone are not the main focus.
“We are not obsessed with margins of error alone. What matters more are patterns of support and the direction of sentiment change,” he said.
In contrast, Hisommudin warned that online and phone polling methods tend to overrepresent urban, digitally connected and elite groups, while underrepresenting voters on the margins.
“Fast data may look impressive on social media, but it does not always reflect what is happening on the ground,” he said.
Without accounting for Malaysia’s social structure and digital divide, he added, political narratives risk being shaped by only a narrow segment of society.
“At the end of the day, elections are not decided on timelines or trending charts. They are decided by voters including those who are rarely heard online," he said.
For Ilham Centre, this is why face-to-face polling remains essential, even as costs rise and digital methods grow more popular.
“Data is not just about charts and graphs,” Hisommudin said. “It carries emotions, unspoken messages and realities on the ground. If you don’t understand its language, you will misread the country.”