6 May 2011

More Polling Institutions Needed

Story by Shamini Darshni with pictures by Michelle Kiob

Dr Akiko Morishita

Malaysia needs more institutions which could conduct public opinion polls in order to better gauge how people view politics, government policies and national issues, an analyst said.

Dr Akiko Morishita, an adjunct research fellow at the School of Arts and Social Sciences of Monash University Sunway campus, said that politicians lately had begun to realise the need to grasp public opinion trends in an uncertain political environment.

“They are inclining towards tailoring their policies and political campaigns based on findings on public opinion surveys, more so, when elections are approaching,” she said at a SASS Seminar Series.

Dr Morishita said interest in public opinion surveys in Malaysia was fairly new.

“The argument is whether public opinion as measured in opinion surveys is an opinion or sentiment, and really whether it is the opinion of a majority or a minority,” she said.

Thus, she emphasised, the need for more institutions conducting such surveys.

The most active polling institute in Malaysia was the Merdeka Centre which started in 2001.

“The establishment more of such institutions would encourage more Malaysians, namely voters, to evaluate their own perception and thought of issues that affected them on a daily basis; and help formulate meaningful responses when answering a survey,” she said.

Comparatively, Indonesia has seen a mushrooming trend of polling institutions – over 30 political survey centres have been established in the past decade.