A survey by Merdeka Centre conducted in April revealed that 74 percent of 606 respondents polled are satisfied with the performance of Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem, 14 months after he came to power.

According to Merdeka Centre's pollster Ibrahim Suffian, the Muslim Bumiputera community constitute 82 percent who are satisfied, and this was followed by the non-Muslim Bumiputera at 74 percent and Chinese 67 percent satisfied.

"There are only 13 percent of voters being dissatisfied," said Ibrahim.

“The high rating is prompted by his promise to improve governance, address the economic and infrastructure needs of the state as well as being more robust about protecting the state's interest,” said Ibrahim ( photo ).

Adenan possibly received good approval ratings due to his move to eradicate corruption, he added.

The Sarawak elections will have to be called by the middle of next year and Adenan is bent on getting his own mandate after being given the hot seat by his predecessor Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Universiti Malaya Sarawak (Unimas) political analyst Dr Faizal S Hazis said Adenan's approach of listening to his detractors had won them over.

"Over the past few months he had met the owner of Sarawak Report and Save Sarawak's Rivers activists.

"Adenan had also made a pledge to review the number of dams being constructed," he said.

Corruption tops list

They were speaking at a forum in Petaling Jaya entitled 'Sarawak Good Governance Opinion Survey 2015' organised by the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism.

During the forum, Faizal suggested that EU representatives who are critical  of Sarawak's timber export policy to meet Adenan himself.

Ibrahim said that half of the 606 respondents saw Sarawak heading in the right direction while 33 percent felt otherwise.

He said 68 percent of the respondents were satisfied with Adenan's administration despite an uncertain national economic outlook.

The issues plaguing Sarawak, he added, were bread and butter issues including the GST, inflation or the rising cost of living, having proper public infrastructure, the national economy, people having lower incomes, job opportunities and development.

However, the pollster found that corruption was at the top of the list of issues requiring government attention immediately.

With regards to the next state elections, Faizal ( photo ) opined that a switch of 10  percent of votes may result in the opposition winning 16 seats while a switch of 15 percent of votes would see a swing of 22 to 35 seats.

“However, this is still not enough for the opposition to create the new state government (if a switch of 15 percent of the votes happens),” said the Unimas professor.