KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Claiming that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration has failed in leading the country, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has urged Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to let Parliament or the voters to choose a new government.

In a statement today, Lim cited a recent survey by Merdeka Center that while it indicates PN and Muhyiddin face growing support in Peninsular Malaysia, however, in the same survey nearly half believed that the country is heading in the wrong direction.

"To have 83 per cent support amongst Malays unhappy about the worsening Covid-19 situation and rising prices of food and basic necessities, a high 30 per cent and 66 per cent approval rating from the Chinese and Indians deeply alienated at a PN government with a racist and extremist religious mindset, is seen as surreal.

"This is reflected by the same survey that paradoxically, revealed that 46 per cent of the respondents believed the country was ‘heading in the wrong direction’, more than the 41 per cent who believed that the country was moving in the ‘right direction’.

"Clearly the unelected PN government cannot get the country moving in the right direction again. Let democracy prevail by allowing Parliament or the people decide on the new government,” he said.

The survey also showed that Muhyiddin received a whopping 67 per cent approval rating in the midst of an economic downturn, Covid-19 pandemic and political instability.

Merdeka Center’s full report then detailed the positive responses by those within their test groups, which were categorised by gender, age groups, level of education, professions, household income brackets, geographical location and ability to access the internet.

Their findings showed that a majority of the Malay and ethnic Indian respondents agreed with the management of the pandemic, with only 44 per cent of the ethnic Chinese respondents sharing these sentiments.

Lim then urged Muhyddin to reconvene Parliament and subsequently call for a general election to legitimise his political coalition.

"Muhyiddin should be confidently reopening Parliament and preparing to call for general elections to gain his own electoral mandate to neutralise the stigma of treachery and forming an unelected government.

"Instead, Muyhiddin continues to suspend Parliament and uses emergency powers to approve Supplementary Budgets of tens of billions of ringgit and even dip into the National Trust Fund (KWAN), which was never done before by previous governments,” said Lim.

Lim was also referring to the decision made by the federal government recently to dip into KWAN, a move where he reiterated was akin to robbing the savings meant for future generations.