PETALNG JAYA, Mar 11 (Sin Chew Daily) — Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin, who is in charge of the national COVID-19 vaccination program, received the highest votes from the readers of both Sin Chew Daily and Sinar Harian as the best performing minister in the cabinet. He received a total of 11,125 votes.
The national immunization program was rolled out in stages following the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines at the end of last month. Khairy had since attended seminars on COVID-19 vaccines organized by various groups. He also answered queries posted by netizens on social media and promised to look into the case of VIPs jumping queue on vaccination.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, fondly referred to as Abah in the Malay community, used to remind Malaysians to abide by COVID-19 standard operating procedures and regularly announced the government's anti-COVID-19 measures on TV. He is ranked 5th with 6,367 votes.
In conjunction with the first anniversary of the Perikatan Nasional government, Sin Chew Daily and Sinar Harian collaborated in a public poll to compile readers' feedback on the government's performance in various sectors and the battle against the pandemic, including the best performing cabinet ministers.
Azmin a lackluster performer
The second place went to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri (7,722 votes), followed by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (7,261 votes) and Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz. (6,728 votes).
Apart from Sabri, the ranking for the other three senior ministers were low. Education Minister Datuk Dr. Mohd Radzi Md Jidin was ranked 15th (2,613 votes), Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof came in 20th (1,940 votes) while International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali settled at 27th place (1,390 votes), sixth from the bottom.
The only Chinese minister in the Cabinet, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong polled 3,119 votes at the ninth place.
Ministers who took sixth to tenth places were Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (6,236 vote), Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa (4,532 votes), Minister of Environment and Water Datuk Tuan Ibrahim (4,167 votes), Wee Ka Siong, and Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali (2,980 votes).
Best performing ministers polled by Sin Chew Daily's readers are as folllows:
1. Khairy Jamaluddin
2. Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein
3. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
4. Tengku Zafrul Aziz
5. Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong
6. Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob
7. Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad
8. Datuk Dr. Mohd Radzi Md Jidin
9. Datuk Seri M. Saravanan
10. Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican
However, statistics indicated that 1,900 Sin Chew Daily readers did not answer the question on "who is the best performing minister". Close to 30% of respondents held the view that none of the ministers delivered.
The public poll indicated that 38.43% of respondents were happy with the performance of Perikatan Nasional government while 61.57% were not.
As for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, he received an average score of 4.3 rated by 24,370 readers.
Lift emergency decree and reconvene parliament
The public opined that the immediate task for the government is to set short-, medium- and long-term plans to revive the economy (9,308 votes), followed by cabinet reshuffle to replace non-performing ministers (8.627 votes).
Other immediate measures which received public support included:
Convene parliamentary sitting for members of parliament to carry out checks and balances (6,490 votes), initiate the confidence/no-confidence vote in parliament (6,276 votes), suspend the state of emergency to restore confidence among local and foreign investors (6,190 votes), and implement stringent movement control orders by shutting down all economic sectors to flatten the curve within the shortest time possible (4,864 votes).
Most people did not think a snap poll is urgent and it was ranked second from the bottom. The measure of distributing cash aid to people received the least support.
Pandemic far from over
Is the government doing well in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic? A total of 45.75% of the public opined that the anti-COVID-19 battle is far from over and it is too early to assess the outcome since the national immunization program is still on-going until next February. A total of 10.52% of the public felt that the government had delivered in its battle against COVID-19 while 43.73% thought otherwise.
Most of the readers did not give positive assessment on the PN government's performance in combating the virus The government received an average score of 4.36.
Majority of people were optimistic the pandemic would likely end this year. A total of 55.62% of respondents were optimistic that the pandemic would be over by this year but 44.38% believed it would not end this year.
Most people agreed with the government's anti-COVID-19 measures, lockdown of borders, ban on entering and leaving Malaysia. The public also supported the MCO implemented in March last year banning inter-district and inter-state travels, as well as the vaccination program which will cover everyone in this country, including foreigners.
However, as many as 19,626 respondents disagreed on the three-day isolation for cabinet ministers returning from oversea trips.
Other measures that the public were unhappy with included: family gatherings and weddings allowed during CMCO (18,333 respondents), lifting of inter-state travel ban on December 6 last year (15,243), and sports activities such as golfing and fishing allowed during MCO 2.0 (12,989).
Emergency unwarranted
Is the state of emergency necessary to curb COVID-19 pandemic? Readers of both dailies shared similar view with majority of them not seeing such a need.
A total of 63.41% (15,454 respondents) did not see the need while 36.59% (8,917) did.
Some 16,894 readers (69.32%) opined that the declaration of emergency was only to serve political need while only 30.68% (7,477 readers) thought the declaration was meant to curb the pandemic.
A small percentage of readers, 22.3% of them, 5,049 from Sinar Harian and 377 from Sin Chew Daily, were satisfied with the government's economic revival programs. More than half of readers (59.7%) were unhappy with the performance of the PN government.
Majority of readers (44.4%) did not think that the economic stimulus package and various aid packages for the people were effective in reviving the national economy and took into account of the people's well-being. Those who opined that the measures were effective made up of 35.1% while 20.5% did not benefit from those measures.
Most of the readers did not have confidence in the PN government on economic revival. Only 18.2% of them were confident of the government while 36.8% viewed that the economic revival measures would depend on development in political situation.
Back to school again? No!
Both the Chinese and Malay communities shared similar view on not supporting students to return to school. They were unhappy with the study from home arrangement by the Education Ministry. Parents were worried of the infection risks.
Compiling the public poll conducted by the two leading newspapers, more than half (52%) of parents were unhappy with the study from home arrangement. A total of 9,167 Sinar Harian readers and 3,507 from Sin Chew Daily were dissatisfied with the arrangement. Only 48% of readers were satisfied whereby Sin Chew's readers made up of 2,932 and Sinar Harian 8,765.
Majority of readers (56.8%), 9,075 from Sinar Harian readers and 4,777 from Sin Chew's readers did not support the back-to-school plan . A total of 43,2% of readers, 8,857 from Sinar Harian and 1,662 from Sin Chew Daily, supported the plan.
A total of 63.1% of readers worried about the risk of infection once the students return to school, while 37% of readers insisted on students having to adapt to a new normal by returning to school.
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