VOXPOP 'Money can't buy popularity. Najib's habit of dishing out goodies before elections no longer works. Freedom and justice can't be bought.'

'Generous budget' lifts Najib's rating by just 1pct

Ex-Wfw: With 65 percent support in the Merdeka Centre survey, PM Najib Razak should call for an early GE. Why waste the opportunity? The longer he waits, more unpleasant news will crop out.

As things stand, he is still unsure of the whole situation, this means he has no faith in this survey. He needs to bankrupt the Treasury even more before he calls the election.

By now, a good majority of the receivers realised that the cash actually belongs to them, not the government so they going take what is offered and it will not affect who they will vote for.

Hang Babeuf: An overall change of 1 percent from 64 to 65 percent means nothing. It is well in the range of statistical error, a matter of sampling technicalities.

As for the quite large differences in some "segments" of the population and electorate (as noted in other reports on this latest Merdeka Centre opinion survey), they seem to mean one of two things: either that these segments of the electorate hold very firm, strong and decided opinions but those opinions are very volatile, changeable; or - more likely - that people don't care very much about such surveys and their responses to them and, further, are thoroughly bored with this kind of "impression management politics", with all the long-drawn-out pre-election political foreplay - and so say what they do very casually, without much consideration and conviction, and hence also without great plausibility.

One real election is worth a thousand hypothetical polls, no matter how good the statistical sample. People want an election, not polls.

Lim Chong Leong: One percent improvement after how many billions of ringgit spent? So to get two-thirds majority, Najib would have to bankrupt the country and probably borrow a lot more, too.

Mr KJ John: Najib has tried hard to meet expectations of younger people, but the discrepancy with those earning below RM1,500 makes it obvious that his childhood upbringing makes him urban and middle class, but lacks the finesse to understand and appreciate the needs for the ordinary poorer people from simpler backgrounds.

Mushiro: There is nothing that can lift the popularity of Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor. The MSMs' (mainstream media's) huge and massive propaganda machineries can only do so much and any slight hiccup brings down their ratings further.

There are too many skeletons in their closet, with some yet to be exposed and which will explode anytime. Malaysia has never got such a controversial and tarnished PM candidate before.

Starr: The survey shows money can't buy popularity. Najib's habit of dishing out goodies before elections no longer works. Freedom and justice can't be bought. Those who think they can are not only naive, but primitive too.

Moontime: Our PM must be really be naive to think that he can take us all for fools. Please don't insult our intelligence by giving all sorts of material gifts hoping that we will support BN in return.

The analogy goes like this: A king had a sumptuous dinner with all the trappings of a huge feast. Later he realised that his subjects hadn't eaten so he instructed his minions to gather all the scraps and throw it to them.

And the king, now with a full stomach, issues an edict, "All my citizens should be grateful for all that I have done! I took care of your needs and now you should all support me as proof of your gratitude."

Some of the citizens stood up against the king and said, "Your majesty, we need more than that. We don't even have enough bread to feed our children."

Then the queen interjected, "Let them eat cake!" This caused quite a stir among the citizens and many of them decided not to support the king any more. End of story.

'Deepak's claims merit reopening Altantuya case, AG'

Lim Chong Leong: Just keep quiet and hope the matter will disappear. That is now the PM's and FLOM's (First Lady of Malaysia's) approach.

Meantime, the attorney-general and MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) will do all the ‘tai chi' and avoid all questions and sustain the pressure.

After all, just give a few bags of rice and new generators to the village heads of all the Orang Asli and their vote bank will keep them in parliament.

As for me, I am interested in the how the final chapter of a real murder story ends.

Righteous: It is truly amazing that our PM is still our PM with this amount of bad press, especially with the fast approaching GE.

If he had any interest in his party winning, he would step down and address these accusations. They really do merit his full attention as it is a capital offence we are discussing here.

Bootsie: Righteous, I, too, cannot believe my eyes and ears that here is a man who has been accused of a major crime and he can still go around the country pretending that all is well.

Really disturbing and mind boggling.

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