PUTRAJAYA, Nov 25 — PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli today dismissed the fall in approval ratings for party president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, saying that such an occurrence is normal for any government heading towards the middle of its term.
The Merdeka Center findings do not come from an isolated issue and must be read with the context of approval ratings for previous prime ministers, who had lower approval ratings than Anwar, Rafizi told reporter at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here where the PKR congress is being held this year.
“According to my reading, seeing the Merdeka Center findings, actually the approval ratings are quite good compared to the approval ratings of previous prime ministers, the year after he became prime minister.
“But that wasn’t read by people. Many people only looked at that only and didn’t look at the others,” Rafizi said about Anwar.
Rafizi, who is also economy minister, touted PKR as the most data driven party that has conducted its own surveys, which showed that Anwar’s popularity has been at high levels until May, when the value of the ringgit fell.
He said that until then, Anwar’s popularity has surged in recent months with the government’s implementation of policies such as the Madani Economy framework and the National Energy Transition Roadmap.
“Figures from September and October and November have shown an increase again,” Rafizi said.
He said that the “unity government” under Anwar is currently rock solid with increasing public support and that PKR has nothing to worry about, unlike the federal Opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN) and its component party Bersatu, which is also holding its sixth annual general meeting in Shah Alam, Selangor this weekend.
“The Opposition is in tatters because I don’t think Perikatan Nasional can maintain the momentum that it had before,” he said.
He added that PN’s momentum was generated based on projections for the fall of the federal government and not after the August state elections in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu.
According to Rafizi, Bersatu has been lucky since it wis a relatively new party and had not been a member of the federal Opposition since its founding.
“The moment your own party members feel that there is going to be a tough road ahead, some will back off and start pointing fingers at each other ‘why aren’t things like this’.
“Then you will see a lot of discourse internally about what will happen with the party and then leadership... we’re already seeing it.
“And whatever happens in Bersatu will also have an effect on PAS because PAS by nature, they will say ‘you are weak then I have to find other partners’,” he said.
The 2023 PKR Annual National Congress will be held over this weekend with the theme ‘Memaknai Reformasi, Menjulang Madani’.
The press conference was held after Rafizi’s opening address for the Women’s wing.
