Najib’s rating of 72% approval?

The Merdeka Centre published its “independent” polls results which gives PM Najib a 72% approval rating by “ordinary” Malaysians sampled by them.

In the same report, they also stated that of the 1,028 sampled, 47% responded as unemployed or “not in the workforce”! This alone should raise questions on the credibility of the poll and its sampling. You mean to tell me that 47% of Malaysians do not have to feed themselves or are retired? Isn’t this contradictory to the government’s claim that the unemployment rate in Malaysia is 3.7%? Being a young country, surely the retirees do not form 43% of the population!

Even in Japan, with the highest aging population in the world, they only have 21% of citizens above 65 years of age!

So dear readers, I would not put too much faith into polls like this. It makes little sense when almost 90% of people I know (and that is a lot and come from across many races) tell me to my face that they have no confidence in PM Najib eventhough he may mean well. As they rightly pointed out, the standard operational procedure of UMNO cannot produce a leader who can be accepted by 72% of ordinary Malaysians. It is simply impossible when the majority Malays are split down the middle, give or take 5-10% either way.

I also wonder if officers of Merdeka Centre attended the APCO workshops on how to communicate in the digital era and perhaps how to “manipulate” public sentiments? I also wonder if those sampled for this poll comprised of only mat rempits and the elderly?