MOST MALAYSIAN'S MALAY STILL WANT QUOTAS

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — 'Malays', the majority ethnic in the country support affirmative demand to stop dismantling Bumiputera quotas said Merdeka Centre head, Ibrahim Suffian.
After the independent pollster’s recent survey revealed that close to 70 per cent of Malay voters in peninsular Malaysia agreed with Malay nationalist movement (Perkasa)’s demand to stop dismantling Malay and Bumiputera quotas.

• Merdeka Centre was started in 2001 by Ibrahim and Hazman Hamid, but the organization only gained public interest in 2004 when it conducted surveys on Malaysians’ health conditions and work-life balance. Since then, most of their surveys are focused on political and socio-economic issues.
• Some of the major surveys that they have conducted recently include one on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s first 100 days in office, a 2008 voter opinion poll, a Perak voter opinion poll, and a media independence survey.
• Merdeka Centre surveys have been quoted extensively in various print and online publications over the past few years since 2004, lending it credibility.
• “We try to make it as broad-based as possible,” explained Ibrahim in reference to the relevance of small survey samples to the Malaysian population at large.
• However, many Malay liberals questioned if the results were accurate.
• Ibrahim is from a finance and marketing background while the rest of his team comprises people from diverse backgrounds, such as economics, public relations, statistics, and political science.

Source: The Malaysian Insider