The Average Malaysian and the National Budget 2017 – survey
KUALA LUMPUR – Pursuant to the announcement of the National Budget 2017, a survey amongst Malaysians was conducted to ascertain what Malaysians thought of it.
A national survey conducted by KAJIDATA Research revealed that 84.4% of Malaysians are aware of the National Budget 2017 tabled in Parliament on October 21, 2016.
The survey indicated that a majority of Malaysians (81.5%) understand the budget. Further probing revealed that 21.5% are satisfied, 35.8% are on the fence and 42.7% are not satisfied with the recently tabled budget and this was demonstrated when 46.4% stated that the budget does not take into account the problems that have been voiced out by the Rakyat. 44.6% of the 1,004 Malaysians surveyed suggested that the measures introduced in the National Budget 2017 does not help alleviate the effects of the rising living costs. However, 60.5% of Malaysians agreed with the government’s efforts in allocating BR1M even though it is insufficient.
In terms of development, Malaysians (40.3%) agreed that the National Budget 2017 has given equal emphasis to rural and urban areas and 52.8% of the Rakyat responded that the budget was also equally distributed to Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.
On another matter, respondents cited the economy as a factor that was troubling them with 62.5% of the Rakyat said that they are very much affected by the current national economy. Further probing revealed that 51.7% are not confident with the Malaysian economy. Nonetheless, 85.7% of Malaysians agree that the current national economic problems are the result of the worldwide economic downturn which has a resounding global effect.
The opinion poll was carried out by KAJIDATA Research Sdn. Bhd. The poll was conducted from 24 October to 10 November 2016 to gauge the Rakyat’s perception on the National Budget 2017 as well as determining other issues that are viewed as ‘problems’ by Malaysians.
A total of 1,004 registered voters in Malaysia comprising 52.5% Malays, 29.5% Chinese, 7.3% Indians, 4.9% Bumiputra Sabah, 4.4% Bumiputra Sarawak, 0.6% Orang Asli and 0.9% Others were interviewed by telephone in the poll. Respondents were selected on the basis of random stratified sampling along ethnicity, gender, age and state.
