How credible are Najib’s statements, Kit Siang asks

The DAP parliamentary leader says Najib Razak is the most unpopular prime minister ever and that he, therefore, suffers from a trust deficit.

KUALA LUMPUR: Veteran DAP politician Lim Kit Siang has raised a question as to the credibility of statements made by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Pointing to surveys and reports, the DAP parliamentary leader said that Najib had become very unpopular, which denotes a trust-deficit.

He said in a statement today that Najib had claimed that his government was number one in the world in transparency and government delivery when presenting the annual report of the National Transformation Programme yesterday.

But, Lim said, on the same day, TIME magazine had included Najib in its list of five world leaders who it claimed were less popular than United States President Donald Trump.

Also, several earlier surveys in the country had shown that Najib’s popularity was at an all-time low, including with the Malays, the Gelang Patah MP said.

“So, who will Malaysians believe – Najib or the national and international surveys and perceptions?”

Najib, in unveiling the report, had said last night that he had been brave enough to table yearly reports on the country’s national transformation performance despite the continued attempts of some people to discredit his government.

“In fact, if surveyed, where is there any other government in the world that is as transparent and has discipline of action in fulfilling its promises, prioritising the interest of the people, and not just offering empty promises,” he had asked.

Lim said there were several surveys which showed that Najib was unpopular, the latest being the TIME report.

He said according to the TIME magazine “risk report”, despite an approval rating of under 40%, Trump was “sitting pretty” compared with five others: Najib, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Brazilian President Michel Temer, South African President Jacob Zuma and Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras.

He said Najib was cited among the “ignominous five” because of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money laundering scandal, “which Najib had denied, but which has earned Malaysia the appellation of a global kleptocracy”.

“The TIME citation of Najib asked: ‘Who needs popularity when you have political power and money in the bank?’”

Lim said the TIME report tallied with recent surveys that Najib was “the most unpopular prime minister in the nation’s history”.

In October 2015, he said, Singapore’s the Straits Times quoted a survey by Merdeka Center showing that only 31% of Malay voters were satisfied with the government.

This, he said, was the first time approval for the government among Malays had fallen below 50% since the Merdeka Center began recording the data in February 2012.

The government’s overall approval rating also plummeted to 23%, the worst since the surveys started in 2012.

The survey was conducted among respondents in Peninsular Malaysia in August, shortly after Najib dismissed deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin for his critical stance on the 1MDB.

In February this year, Lim said, a survey by the Selangor government think-tank, Institut Darul Ehsan, found that only 19% of voters in Selangor believed that Najib’s leadership would increase support for the Barisan Nasional.

“Such findings tally with other surveys, like the Edelman Trust Barometer 2017 for Malaysia which found that the trust level of Malaysians in key institutions, including the government, has declined – with 52% of Malaysians believing the system was failing them.” -FMT