Financial or political corruption remains a top concern for Malaysians

by AZALEA AZUAR / pic TMR

DESPITE a tumultuous past two years, almost half of Malaysians (45%) feel the country is heading in the right direction as the 15th General Election (GE15) draws close.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos Malaysia, the situation has slightly improved compared to the outlook ahead of GE14 when only 35% said the country is heading in the right direction.

“While financial or political corruption remains a top concern for Malaysians (56%), socioeconomic worries such as inflation, and poverty and social inequality are more prominent ahead of GE15, with 43% and 32%, respectively.

“Worries crime and violence recorded significant drop compared to the leadup to GE14, from 33% in April 2018 to 21% in October 2022,” Ipsos Malaysia said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Ipsos Malaysia highlighted that Malaysians are no longer concerned about Covid-19 (14%) compared to when the pandemic first emerged in March 2020 (85%). 

“Their concerns have now shifted to inflation (43%) which is steadily increasing since March 2020 (13%),” Ipsos Malaysia said in a statement today.

Ipsos public affairs associate director Lars Erik Lie said Malaysia has gone through an uncertain economic environment since GE14 and the pandemic.

“Although corruption remains a major concern for most Malaysians, it is not at the same level it was ahead of the last election. 

“Now, socioeconomic concerns are more evident as worries about inflation has almost doubled since GE14, and poverty and social inequality are on people’s minds more than it was before,” he said in the same statement.

He highlighted that the concern about Covid-19, which was all-encompassing for much of the last two to three years, has been largely subdued.

Although there have been some socioeconomic concerns, he said Malaysians are more hopeful with the outlook compared to four years ago.