Malays split 60-30 on Saiful's confession

The Malays in Permatang Pauh, comprising 69% of the voters, are roughly split 60-30 in favour of Anwar Ibrahim over the sodomy claim against the PKR candidate.

Close to 60% in the hotly contested constituency said that they do not believe Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 23, who has sworn in a mosque that he was sodomised by the 61-year-old opposition leader.

According to the Merdeka Centre survey which was conducted over the weekend in Permatang Pauh among 544 Malays, 56.7% of them said that they ‘somewhat do not believe’ (21.4%) or ‘do not believe at all’ (35.3%) in Saiful’s confession.

On the other hand, 30.8% answered that Saiful was speaking the truth, with 14.3% said they ‘strongly believe’ in his claim, while 14.3% ‘somewhat believe’.

About 12.5% either refused to answer the question or said that they ‘don’t know’.

The result is similar on the question whether the allegation of sexual misconduct was politically motivated with 59% agreeing against 34.8%.

Along the same lines, 56.3% said the ‘confession’ by Saiful was either politically motivated (32.4%) or was a result of him being ‘forced by other people’ (24.3%).

Thirty-one said they believed Saiful was honest or genuine when he made the confession.

Merdeka Center, which is an independent polling organisation, said the estimated margin of error in the Aug 22-24 survey is 4.3%.

The findings indicate that Anwar will continue to have the support of slightly below two-thirds of the Malays in the constituency.

This is expected to translate into a relatively easy victory for him when Permatang Pauh voters go to the ballot tomorrow.

However, those hoping that Anwar would be able to garner a bigger majority than his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, may have cause to worry.

The three-day survey show that Barisan Nasional's campaign on Saiful has made some impact on Malay voters.

Economy still top issue

It also revealed that 55% held positive views about Anwar as reflected in the numbers of those who agreed with the list of glowing descriptions of him.

According to 43.8 % of the respondents, Anwar is ‘a visionary leader that will bring change’, 9.5% believe him to be ‘courageous’, while 1.6% said he will ‘liberate the people’.

]

Forty percent, on the other hand, had negative views about him as shown in their agreement to such statements as Anwar ‘pursues a personal agenda over that of the public’ (25.5%), ‘creates chaos and unrest’ (11.8%), or ‘erodes Malay rights and position’ (1.6%).

Similarly, 56% of respondents said they agreed ‘Anwar is capable of bringing change that will benefit the people regardless of race’.

Only 37.5 percent agreed with the view of Anwar that he was ‘willing to sell out the position of the Malays so long as he gets to become the top national leader’.

Meanwhile, the survey also revealed that a large portion of respondents (42.59 %) cited issues other than the by-election and Anwar - such as inflation, rising cost of living and unemployment - as being among their top concerns.

Only 24% said Anwar and the current election were their top concerns.