KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — A counter-survey released by consumer research technology company Vase.ai yesterday said just 23 per cent of its Malay respondents from peninsular Malaysia disapproved of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The initial results of the survey — designed to point out the statistical flaws of a previous survey run by five media outlets — also pointed out how almost half of the respondents from the same demographic group approved of the PKR president.
“While we do find that Anwar has a 48 per cent approval among peninsular Malays (59 per cent among total ethnicities), it’s NOT accurate to say he is then disapproved by the remaining 52 per cent (of peninsular Malays) as emphasised across several news outlets,” the company said in a media release.
“Among peninsular Malays, 23 per cent clearly disapprove of Anwar. Our poll also shows that 26 per cent are remaining neutral, while 3 per cent indicated insufficient info to pass judgement, as of yet.
“As there’s no official report or breakdown from the original survey, we’d never know enough on this end to contrast,” it added.
Despite that, the survey also showed that Anwar received the highest proportion of approval from ethnic Chinese in the peninsula with a whopping 79 per cent approval rate, followed by non-Malays (77 per cent).
The survey came as a response towards a hotly-debated poll by social engagement centre O2 Malaysia, which has been slammed as statistically flawed despite involving 35,077 respondents through five media outlets: Sinar Harian, Awani, The Star, Sin Chew and Malaysia Nanban.
It had said about 71 per cent of Malay respondents in peninsular Malaysia were dissatisfied with the new government’s fulfilment of the 15th general election manifesto, and only 15 per cent of Malays in the peninsula said they were satisfied with the government.
Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil had in his criticism questioned the motive behind the survey, its methodology, and its timing as it was published a day before the Budget 2023 was debated and well before the Anwar government marked its 100th day yesterday.
In its release, Vase.ai said it was “not happy” about the survey and therefore was re-running it to ensure that the survey is “done right”.
It pointed out that when gauging approval rating, one should not just group answer options into merely two choices of “Approve” or “Disapprove”.
Vase.ai also said that its survey showed that over half of respondents felt the country is moving in the right direction, as opposed to 45 per cent in the O2 Malaysia survey.
“Across all ethnic groups in Malaysia, there’s an overall consensus of hope that the country is probably headed in the right direction, despite a third feeling that it’s in a current state of a weakened economy,” it said.
A total of 51 per cent of Malays in peninsular Malaysia shared that sentiment, as compared to 54 per cent overall.
Again, ethnic Chinese in peninsular Malaysia had the highest proportion of respondents who felt that way at 58 per cent, followed by non-Malays (57 per cent).
Vase.ai said that in comparison, the previous survey did not include the option for “I don’t have enough info to comment”, which it said encourages forced or false answer options.
The Vase.ai survey involved 1,137 respondents. The firm has not yet replied to Malay Mail’s query for further details of its methodology.
