The government will need to work harder to boost the slowing economy and re-energize the market.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government is almost a hundred days old, and Malaysians have started evaluating the performance of new ministers.

Five local media organizations — Sin Chew Daily, The Star, Sinar Harian, Astro Awani and Malaysia Nanban have joined hands to work with O2 Research to run a survey on the performance of the ministers in the unity government.

64% of Indian and 58% of Chinese respondents believe the unity government will honor its election pledges within the next five years. However, as many as 71% of the Malays on the peninsula are skeptical, the survey finds. They are unhappy with the unity government’s effort to fulfill the election promises.

Although the survey is unable to directly reflect the government’s approval rating among Malaysians from different ethnic backgrounds, it nevertheless protrudes the lack of confidence among the Malay respondents.

In the 15th general election, Malay voters generally leaned towards PN while non-Malay voters were strongly supportive of PH, a phenomenon that has also been manifested in the latest survey.

As such, the unity government still needs to work much harder to win the favor of the Malays.

An earlier Merdeka Center poll showed that Malaysians were largely happy with the performance of the unity government (68%), inducing the Malays (60%) although only 54% were satisfied with the government’s performance. The latest survey, nonetheless, does not indicate that the Malay voters are now tilting towards the unity government.

In last year’s election, PN had a clean sweep in most Malay-majority rural constituencies, uprooting Umno which for decades has branded itself as the party for the Malays. That powerful and unexpected “green wave” is not showing any sign of ebbing.

If the unity government fails to improve its acceptance among the Malays before the start of the upcoming state elections, it is bound to face a truly tough fight.

Additionally, the performance of individual ministers is also unsatisfactory. Anthony Loke scores the highest among the 28 cabinet ministers, with 49% of respondents giving him a big thumbs-up, followed by PM and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, Hannah Yeoh, Nga Kor Ming and Azalina Othman Said. Loke is also the only minister with more respondents “happy” than “unhappy” with his performance, not surprisingly given his frequent “spot checks” since day one.

Notably, none of the cabinet ministers, even the highest rated Loke, has managed to get at least 50% satisfaction level, DPM and rural & regional development minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi being at the bottom of the list, with only 15% of respondents happy with his performance.

There has been some time since these ministers started work, and we expect them to perform at least a little better than this. They can no longer take excuse from their lack of experience or needing more time to learn and adapt.

Some 45% of respondents feel that the country’s overall situation is unsatisfactory, 28% think it is good and 27% neutral.

It is not hard to understand their passive feelings, given the fact the country has just emerged from the gloom of the coronavirus pandemic and is yet to stage a full recovery.

Meanwhile, due to spiraling inflation, economic burden has become the biggest concern among Malaysians.

The survey shows that 80% of people are worried about their day-to-day expenses; 61% are worried they do not have sufficient savings; 56% are worried about debt burden, 53% low pay, 52% their family education cost.

With the rising cost of living further burdening the rakyat, it is imperative that the government work harder to boost the slowing economy and re-energize the market, so that the people can have renewed faith in the country’s economy and future prospect.

The first 100 days in office is only a small “test” for the unity government, and the ministers should review their own performances in a bid to improve themselves to better serve the rakyat and contribute towards the well-being of the nation.