Draft manifestos based on survey’s findings, researchers tell politicians
SHAH ALAM - The findings of study conducted by Ilham Centre, O2 Research Malaysia (O2) and the Centre for Chinese Studies Malaysia (Huayan) should be used by political parties in drafting their manifesto on 15th General Election (GE15).
Ilham Centre Executive Director Muhamad Hisommudin Bakar said through the centre’s research entitled ‘Understanding the People: Preliminary Survey of GE15’, the respondents wanted the government to immediately overcome problems that burdened the people.
“We run this study since last June. At that time, the nation was suffering with high prices of goods with five litres of cooking oil price going up to almost RM50 and eggs also become expensive,” he told Sinar Harian.
Hisommudin said the post-pandemic affected the people's household income, especially when people lost their jobs and suffered pay cuts.
“Many households are affected by the pandemic and it continues even though the country is in the endemic phase.
“Parents who bear the cost of their children studying at universities or higher learning institutions (IPT) in the Klang Valley, as well as big cities, were also affected.
“Even though they live in the village, they still experience the high cost of living since their children are living in the cities,” he said.
Hisommudin said parents with children who studied abroad such as in the United Kingdom and the United States faced worse situations due to the doubled expenses due to the ringgit's weakness.
When asked about the survey's background, Hisommudin said the study was carried out for four months as early as June, when they had no idea about the parliament dissolution date.
In terms of research methods, on the other hand, Ilham Centre uses the conventional way like interviewing using a face-to-face survey form on the ground.
Meanwhile, O2 chief researcher Anis Anwar Suhaimi said from their side of the study, the issues of cost of living, economy, education and political stability become the priority of Malay voters.
“From a study titled ‘PRU15: What do people want?’, we found that 57 per cent of voters want the government to immediately resolve the cost of living issue and price of goods, whereas 49 per cent want the government to focus on job opportunities and salary rate revisions.
“A total of 48 per cent of voters want the government to solve the education problem followed by 44 per cent about political stability and 41 per cent on the currency rate and national debt,” he said.
On the background study, Anis said this study was carried out to identify the political attitude of the community in relation to current political development.
“This study was also carried out because GE15 landscape is viewed differently compared to GE14 especially in terms of coalition diversity of political parties, Undi18 and automatic registration involvement and voter maturity after evaluating three forms of administration government,” he said.
He said the data collection method was through questionnaires that were distributed online.
“The data used involves 1,105 respondents representing various ethnic backgrounds which consists of 55 per cent Malay, natives of Sabah and Sarawak (14 per cent), Chinese (20 per cent), Indian (nine per cent) and others (two per cent),” he said.
Meanwhile, Huayan Academic Director Associate Professor Dr Chang Yun Fah said its ‘Chinese Contemporary Political Studies on GE15’ found that Chinese voters urged the government to pay attention to economic and cos of living issues.
“Economic issues and problems of the high cost of living greatly impact their daily life.
“The findings of this study are different compared to GE14 because at that time most Chinese voters prioritises the country’s political and administrative system,” he said.
He said the study was done to determine Chinese voters' contemporary political views.
He also said the study was to identify issues that needed to be addressed by political parties in GE15 and to measure the choice of Chinese voters to choose a party or a combination of parties in the next election.
Chang said the research was done through two methods: face-to-face and online.
“The face-to-face survey involved a total of 293 Chinese respondents from three locations involving Pakatan Harapan (PH), Bukit Gelugor (Penang), Barisan Nasional (BN) Ayer Hitam seat (Johor) and Perikatan National (PN) Sungai Besar (Selangor) seats.
“An online survey was open to all races through Sin Chew Daily and The Star with a total of 2,061 Chinese respondents and 51 non-Chinese respondents,” he said.
