Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's popularity has reduced by almost 10 percent as people find his call for unity under the '1Malaysia' slogan simply rhetorical.

A survey conducted by Merdeka Centre, an independent pollster, showed that the number of Malaysians satisfied with Najib's performance fell to 56 percent from 65 percent in mid-June.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, academics and political experts say that the premier needs to come up with a more concrete and structural plan to boast his performance.

dap set pak lah free forum 121006 khoo kay peng Khoo Kay Peng, political analyst

When he had first taken office, of course his (Najib's) popularity rate would be much higher but the people have to come back to reality and that is what has happened.

The public is now looking at the significant changes he has brought about and they realised that there is nothing much.

Look at the policies that he has introduced. Liberalisation to the 27 sub sectors, for example, he had introduced it but there has not been any follow-up to it. Do we know how it is being implemented? Do we know what has come out of it? Do we know what is the next step of liberalisation?

The things he has done so far is just superficial and artificially engineered feel-good mechanisms. Most of them were based on mere slogans and public relations.

The people do not know what their prime minister wants or what he is attempting to do. All we know is what his public relations company wants.

He keep focussing on '1Malaysia', when he should be tackling real issues, like corruption, rather than this mumbo jumbo.

We need a more structural and systematic way to combat corruption and assure that public money is not wasted.

On education, reverting back to the national language is still not going to settle the problem. What needs to be addressed is the quality of teaching, the curriculum and the teaching standards.

We cannot settle for mediocre achievements.

There needs to be more sincerity in the efforts he makes. The nine percent decline in Najib's popularity is quite significant.

James Chin, political analyst and Monash University lecturer

The reason why Najib's popularity has dropped is because that many Malaysians realised the '1Malaysia' slogan is rhetoric.

For the non Malay population, they thought that the '1Malaysia' slogan would lead to more equality between bumiputras and non-bumiputeras.

Once they realised that '1Malaysia' means the status quo, obviously support will go down.

The reason that Indians support is still primarily high is largely due to Najib reaching out directly to the Indian community.

I predict that his popularity will drop further in the coming month. However, it will pick up again next year when the economy recovers.

sivamurugan pandian saiful bukhari sodomy allegations penang 020708 01 P Siva Murugan, University Science Malaysia (USM) deputy dean of social sciences faculty

Although his popularity has dropped, there is no significant change in the percentage of dissatisfaction among the people. It looks as though it has remained stagnant.

It shows that the people are still not decided and maybe they are waiting to see if Najib's implementation of his promise will be fulfilled.

The dip in popularity could be due to all the issues that he is facing now especially in Selangor (cow head incident). Although the incident is mainly attributed to the opposition, this could also cause people to question his leadership.

The internal problems that BN is facing could be a cause for the drop of his popularity. For example, the struggle and uncertainties in MIC and MCA.

The reason why Indian support is still high is because Najib is communicating directly to the Indian community. For example, his visit to Batu Caves and his speech at the MIC assembly.

We should give it another six months to ascertain his popularity because people will expect to see results after one year of his appointment and there will be no more room for rhetorical promises.

Overall, 56 percent satisfied is considered good as there were times when Badawi's popularity dropped to 38 percent.

Najib is on the right path. But he has to make sure that the other leaders share his vision.