Malaysians don’t trust the judiciary?
It spells trouble for any country when the public loses confidence in the judicial system for it is this system that the citizen turns to for resolution to disputes, including disputes with the government. The citizen looks to the judicial system to offer him justice.
Rasa Writes
In my last blog, I had written that a survey by Gallup shows that most Malaysians trust the judicial system and the courts. Now, a local survey shows that this is not so.
The Gallup poll, released on Oct. 22, shows that 70 per cent of those polled had confidence in the rule of law in Malaysia. Only 27 percent of the respondents said they had no confidence in the system while 3 percent said they did not know, or refused to answer.
In that post, I asked how this could be reconciled with the feeling on the ground today. Most people seem to have doubts – based on coffee shop talk and views expressed in social and alternative media – about the independence of the Malaysian judiciary and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
The phrase “selective prosecution” is often thrown about in these conversations.
The Merdeka Center poll offers an answer and appears to better reflect the situation on the ground today.
That is not to say that the Gallup poll is wrong. It has to be noted that Gallup interviewed 1,000 people on the telephone between Sept.17 and Nov. 29 last year.
It was only this year that many people were either questioned or charged under the Sedition Act and the authorities were seen as being extra active in applying the law in some areas.
The Merdeka Center poll was done between Oct. 11 and Oct. 26 this year, and, therefore, would better reflect the situation now. It interviewed 1,005 registered voters in all states in the country via telephone.
The Merdeka Center asked this question: In your opinion, how much confident or not confident are you with the judicial system in Malaysia?
Overall, only 38 per cent said they had confidence, while 48 percent said they had no confidence in the judicial system in Malaysia.
Looking at the breakdown, it is interesting that only 9 percent said they were “very confident”, with 29 percent saying they were “somewhat confident”. A total of 19 percent said they were “not confident at all”, while 29 percent said they were “somewhat not confident”. The poll shows 14 percent saying they were “unsure” and 9 percent refusing to answer the question.
Looking at it from the population angle, only 36 percent of males expressed confidence in the judicial system, with 53 percent saying they had no confidence in it.
In contrast, slightly more women said they were confident: 39 percent. However, 42 percent of the women said they were not confident.
It is not surprising that those living in urban areas expressed less confidence in the judicial system, with 55 per cent saying they had no confidence and only 32 percent saying they had confidence.
In the rural areas, the views were reversed, with 46 percent expressing confidence and 37 percent saying they were not confident.
People living in urban areas tend to be more critical of the government and government institutions.
This is probably because they are better informed as they have more access to information channels compared with those in rural areas. Another reason could be that those in urban areas tend to be better educated and therefore reflect on issues such as good governance and justice more than their rural counterparts.
