The majority of youths in Sarawak, especially the Malays and non-Muslim bumiputeras, are happy with the Barisan Nasional government.

According to Bernama , they are of the view that the BN government pays attention to their problems.

The bumiputeras are also much more tolerant in the way the government works while Chinese youths have higher expectations for quality governance and leadership.

These findings were revealed by Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research programme director Ibrahim Suffian in Kuching today.

The Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research conducted the survey from Aug 8 to Sept 1 on 506 randomly selected respondents, aged between 20 and 35, throughout Sarawak.

Ibrahim said the survey also revealed that while many Chinese youths seemed indifferent, their bumiputera counterparts were more likely to join political activities and programmes initiated by the government such as Rakan Muda.

The respondents polled indicated that 76 percent of non-Muslim bumiputera youths knew their elected representatives while Malay/Muslim bumiputeras 70 percent and Chinese 59 percent.

Lower expectations

Ibrahim said the survey also showed that bumiputera youths had a higher degree of acceptance in terms of government policies because the majority of them lived in rural areas.

They also had lower expectations of services because information was hard to come by with local television channels and radios being the only sources, he said.

Meanwhile, he said the trend among Chinese youths was reflective of the overall Chinese voter population shown in other Merdeka Centre polls nationwide because they resided in urban areas, received higher incomes and had better access to information especially through newspapers.

Generally, Ibrahim added, the majority of youths were concerned about local issues which included those of the economy, crime and social problems.

Seventy-two percent of the respondents, mostly bumiputeras, perceived government decisions as having some impact on their daily lives and 56 percent had registered themselves as voters.

The poll in Sarawak was part of the nationwide telephone survey of 1,508 randomly selected Malaysians.

It was funded by the Asian Foundation with support from the Netherlands embassy.