THE high cost of living have hit Sabahans hard with close to six out of 10 saying that they had trouble making ends meet, a recent survey of the Borneo state showed.

Rising cost of goods and services along with the lack of infrastructure development were cited as reasons 44% of those polled believed that Sabah was getting a raw deal from Putrajaya.

The survey was commissioned by The Malaysian Insight and conducted by the Merdeka Center. Some 905 voters aged 21 and above were polled and they consisted of 43% Muslim-Bumiputeras, non-Muslim Bumiputeras (39%) and Chinese (17%).

‎Sabah has long been viewed as a safe bet for Barisan Nasional (BN) in state and general elections. But the survey conducted over April and May suggested that a palpable sense of restlessness among voters. This sentiment was driven largely by the view that the state and country were going in the wrong direction.

There was also a concern that the authorities were not taking key issues, such as illegal immigrants and negative economic conditions in the state seriously.

“Some 66% of voters surveyed viewed prevailing economic conditions in Sabah as unfavourable,” said Ibrahim Suffian, executive director of Merdeka Center, who conducted the survey between April 26 and May 9.

“This is a sentiment that pervades all demographic variables and is more pronounced among lower-income voters,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, 61% of voters were dissatisfied with the Sabah government’s handling of the economy, as opposed to 33% who were satisfied.

A large proportion of households in Sabah subsist on less than RM4,000 per month, said Ibrahim.

Only civil servants, those earning RM5,000 a month and the college-educated said that they were satisfied with their finances.

Economic concerns topped the list of issues that respondents had with Putrajaya at 33%. Of this cluster, inflation, non-payment of oil royalties and general economic malaise were the top three.

Some 23% of those dissatisfied with Putrajaya cited reasons, such as inadequate infrastructure development and the gap between public amenities in the rural and urban areas.

“The negative attitudes appeared to be stronger among younger voters compared with other age groups,” said Ibrahim. – May 19, 2017.