The dip in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's approval rating, especially among Chinese Malaysian voters as found in a recent survey, is the fault of leaders of ruling party Umno, said a former MCA leader.

Former housing and local government minister Dr Ting Chew Peh said the Chinese are not happy because of a series of incidents including the remarks made by deputy premier Najib Abdul Razak, Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein and his deputy, Khairy Jamaluddin.

"This is especially true for Hishammuddin who has refused to meet Chinese educationists Dong Jiao Zong. The Chinese think he is arrogant," he told malaysiakini .

"So these sentiments will go back to the PM because he is the head (of the party)," he added.

The Gopeng MP said other reasons such as the sluggish economy and the 'low-key' battle against corruption are contributing to the poor image of the Abdullah as well.

A recent poll conducted between June 14-20 by Merdeka Centre revealed that the Chinese are less than impressed with the Abdullah's performance compared to other ethnic groups.

Chinese least impressed with Pak Lah

The results indicated that only 54 percent the Chinese Malaysians supported Abdullah administration. However the premier's approval rating appeared high among the Malay (86 percent) and Indian Malaysians (71 percent). [ See chart here ]

On Saturday, Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian attributed the poor results to the fact that the majority of the Chinese think Abdullah had failed to keep his election promises.

"They're less confident with the government's ability in fulfilling the people's aspirations. More Chinese also think that the problem of the sluggish Malaysian economy can be addressed by having more opposition leaders in Parliament," he added.

Khairy singled out

Ting's views were echoed by a Chinese guild leader who singled Khairy out as the person who has cast a negative impression in the Chinese business community.

The businessman, who declined to be named, said the Chinese business community at first viewed the Abdullah's son-in-law highly because of his education and background.

"We thought that being an Oxford graduate he would be more open as we see him as future leader.

"However, it's the other way around especially with his racist remarks and demand for more quotas for bumiputeras," he lamented.

The guild leader - who sees Khairy as "very symbolic" in representing the new Malay leadership - expressed little hope that things will get better.

"What more can we hope for from him?" he asked.

He added affirmative action such as the New Economic Policy has also resulted in 'administrative distortion' which prevented Chinese businesses from functioning properly.

"Like loans to small and medium enterprises. They will argue the business needs 30 percent bumiputera employees... the NEP becomes the excuse for everything," he said.

Not easy to reform

Meanwhile, Kota Melaka MP Wong Nai Chee opined that the questions phrased by the research centre must be looked at first before attacking Abdullah's popularity.

"It is difficult to say if Chinese are unhappy with Pak Lah's administration. I don't know what and how the questions were posed to elicit such answers," said the rising star of MCA.

Despite admitting that certain issues such as police reforms, independence of the judiciary, action taken against corrupt officials and public delivery have generated high expectations from the people, Wong said the Abdullah cannot be solely blamed for this.

"To be fair to the PM, I don't think we gave an impression that we can resolve these issues in three years. The system has been in place for so many years, it's not easy to reform.

"Like the police, we can see they are getting tough on their own boys. You can't say the government has had zero achievement even if the speed is not up to expectations," he elaborated.