According to a recent Merdeka Center survey, Khairy is the most popular leader amongst the Malays, while Zahid Hamidi is the least popular.
Anwar somewhat fares somewhere in the middle.
According to the survey, 62 percent of Malays are satisfied with Khairy, while in second place is Muhyiddin Yassin at 49 percent, followed closely by Dr Ahmad Samsuri at 48 percent.
Anwar came fourth at 45 percent. Hadi, Rafizi and Zahid Hamidi made up the last three with 41, 36 and 31 percent respectively.
Personally, I feel that this is a very badly framed poll because Khairy doesn't even belong in this category.
Khairy holds no leadership position at the present time, so naturally he will perform well, because he will be evaluated on his potential rather than his performance.
Those who are evaluated by their perceived potential will always rate higher than those who are actually rated by their performance, because those who are rated by potential will be buoyed by hope, while those who are rated by actual performance will be weighed down by reality.
Before Rafizi helmed Parti Bersama Malaysia, I also rated him quite highly as a potential game-changer in Malaysian politics. After he took charge of Parti Bersama Malaysia however, reality has taken precedence over potentials, and now my estimate of Rafizi is significantly lower than before.
It is the same with Khairy. When he was the Health Minister, I remember viewing him rather negatively as a potential PM of the country, especially considering how he handled the vaccination program during the covid era. But now, that he has been out of power for the last 3 or 4 years, my opinion of him is much more positive than it was before.
Anyway, my point here is Khairy doesn't belong in this list because he is a politicians who is nowhere close to being at the top for the time being.
If you take Khairy out of the list, then Muhyiddin will be the leader that the Malays are placing their highest hope on, which I find to be absurd. Muhyiddin is two steps away from being swallowed by oblivion — to say that he is the leader that the Malays place the highest hope on seems self evidently preposterous.
Other than that, there is also the question of why other important Malay leaders like Tok Mat or Hamzah are not included in the list. After Anwar, Zahid and Dr Sam, it is actually Tok Mat and Hamzah that are on the list of politicians who are most likely to become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. That their names are absent from the surveys consideration, does not speak well of the thought processes behind the survey.
Considering how badly formulated the survey is, for combining politicians who do not belong in the same category in the same list, not including important politicians who should have been included, and probably framing the inquiry in such a slanted manner that a politician who is heading towards oblivion like Muhyiddin managed to top the survey, makes me come to two conclusions.
1. Merdeka Center is probably not staffed by qualified people.
2. This survey might not be an objective survey — it might be agenda-driven propaganda disguised as objective science, designed to promote certain politicians while dismissing others, rather than a genuine research to understand our political reality better.
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