He said the 51% support for Muhyiddin as reported by Kuala Lumpur-based research centre O2 Malaysia was due to certain parties “fanning the flames of hatred” by holding “baseless protests”.
Razali, who is also the Terengganu Bersatu chief, said support for leaders frequently fluctuated, and there would only be cause for concern if support for Muhyiddin plunged to 0%.
“The government is doing a lot of good things now, and that’s why the majority still support the prime minister,” he told FMT.
“The figure is above 50%, and that is sufficient in the current situation (during the Covid-19 pandemic).”
FMT recently reported that based on the O2 Malaysia survey, support for Muhyiddin’s leadership dropped to 51% in the first quarter of this year from 66% in the second quarter of last year.
The survey also showed that the decline in support for Muhyiddin was in contrast to the support enjoyed by leaders of other political parties, who were seen to have more consistent levels of support.
However, Muhyiddin remains the political leader with the highest level of support, followed by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (34%), DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (30%), PKR president Anwar Ibrahim (26%), Amanah president Mohamad Sabu (22%) and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (11%).
Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi said Muhyiddin should “raise the white flag” following the drop in support.
Puad said the prime minister should accept that a significant decline within a year indicated that the people were not confident in the policies and effectiveness of the Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government.
“In reality, Muhyiddin has failed to deal with the pandemic and has a failed economic policy since foreign investors are not coming in,” he told FMT.
“His policies, such as the Emergency, are ineffective as he has failed to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases. Instead, it is increasing.”
Razlan Rafii, another Umno Supreme Council member, described Muhyiddin’s decline in support as a manifestation of the people’s anger towards the prime minister for his seeming failure to manage the country.
He also said Muhyiddin’s government was seen to be not functioning well and alleged that only a handful of ministers were working hard.