NINE out of 10 polled over 24 hours on The Malaysian Insight’s social media said they are dissatisfied with Perikatan Nasional over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the 24-hour survey conducted on The Malaysian Insight’s Twitter on Friday, 96% of the 2,450 respondents said they are dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 4% are satisfied.

Similarly, on Facebook, 92% out of 93 respondents answered “No” to the question on whether they are satisfied with the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Twitter user Aruna (@imfsea_aruna) said on Friday, “Health Minister (Dr Adham Baba) should be removed quickly.

“Defence Minister Ismail Sabri is synonymous with Covid-19 cases, reading out text messages and highlighting the number of people arrested and fined during MCO. But nobody knows how much fines the government has collected,” said Aruna.

Twitter user, blueocean (@ayg16) summarised his disappointment with this message: “It’s better for Perikatan to resign as it cannot governed but only collects wages each month. It’s only in power now because of the Emergency Proclamation”.

Commenting on the results, Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar said he is not surprised over the results.

“It’s very clear that many are unhappy with MCO 2.0 and the emergency as this has failed to bring down the number of new infections two weeks after they were announced on January 11,” said the pollster.

“The weak enforcement of SOP and the constant flip-flops in government decisions gives the impression that the National Security Council has not learnt anything from MCO 1.0,” said Hisommudin.

“What is worse is that ministers and government officials are showing bad examples by flouting SOP rules openly, such as not practising social distancing, wearing masks and still holding mass gathering. This has given rise to the impression that this government has a double standard.”

Many Malaysians feel that they are unfairly fined for breaking the standard operating procedure while the minister appears to escape scot-free, he said.

Elaborating on the drastic drop in satisfaction towards the government, Hisommudin said PN centred its media and communications strategy on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during MCO 1.0 (March 18-April 29, 2020).

“Perikatan promoted Muhyiddin as a prime minister who cared for Malaysians, used simple language in his speeches and coming up with a good stimulus package in Prihatin that came with the automatic loan moratorium. 

“Additionally, the government had Muhyiddin recite prayers that was aired night and day on national television and radio. These propaganda elements were used to the maximum by the government.

“As a result of that, one survey said Muhyiddin’s approval ratings reached 69% in a poll last September with 93% expressing their satisfaction with the government on its handling of the Covid-19 crisis.”

But MCO 2.0 highlights how unprepared the government is dealing with Covid-19 and it’s reflected in the poll, said Hisommudin.

Fix problems

Fearing the worst, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said that the drop in public confidence could hamper the government’s future plans on how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In public health emergencies, if the government loses the trust of the public, they have lost one of the biggest battles. 

“When there is lack of confidence, there is often lack in compliance. This is due to the lack of leadership and clear direction shown by the federal government and a lack of ‘whole of society’ approach,” said the DAP lawmaker.

Yii said PN’s preoccupation with politics instead of governance has caused it to lose the window of opportunity to build a stronger foundation to involve the whole of society.

The Pakatan Harapan immunisation task force member said it’s not too late for the government to set up a joint public-private sector panel to look at its Covid-19 response over the past one year.

“I believe such inquiry can be held simultaneously while we’re battling Covid-19. The aim is just to find out the mistakes or gaps in our public health response and fix them for our ongoing response. 

“This includes ways to better improve data transparency, mobilisation of all stakeholders and decentralisation of approach, especially to the state government. This will help to increase capacity of testing, speed of contact tracing and also isolation capabilities.”

Muhyiddin announced MCO 2.0 on January 11 and a state of emergency the following day. On January 11, the government announced there were 2,232 new Covid-19 cases. The number of new cases hit a new record yesterday with 5,728 cases. – January 31, 2021.