Public confidence in new Govt. seen waning

Inordinate delays in either filing action or prosecuting key figures in the former regime including close associates of the President may have led to a slump in public confidence in the new Government, according to the results of a joint poll conducted over the past two weeks.

The joint opinion poll was presented by the Business Times (BT) and professional pollster, Research and Consultancy Bureau (RCB) in a slightly different exercise this time. Unlike in previous polls, the survey seeking the views of people was twice carried out – via email and on the street in Colombo – in two weeks, before and after the budget.

Among the questions posed to the respondents were four key ones: Are anti corruption measures in force? Are people free to express their views? Is the Rule of Law in place (unlike before) and is abuse of power eradicated or minimised? The full results of the surveys are on Page 4 and 8.

The rationale for the two polls (between January 23 and February 4) within a space of 10-12 days was to ascertain whether the views of the people have changed – within a space of a week to 10 days - and also after the many concessions provided in the budget in addition to other regulatory steps. During the first poll, some of those who responded said it was too early to comment on the performance of the 2-week old Government but in the second poll, such comments were not made.

The “Yes” response to anticorruption measures slipped to 49 per cent (post budget) from 50 per cent (pre budget) in the RCB poll while in the BT study it showed a sharp rise to a 46 per cent ‘Yes” vote from a dismal 29.4 per cent.

There was a strong endorsement of the Government’s measures to the question “freedom of expression”. However when comparing pre and post budget scenarios on this particular question, the RCB poll showed a drop to 77 per cent from 85 per cent (pre budget) while the ‘Yes’ response to this question in the BT survey eased to 90 per cent from 94 per cent (pre budget).

The poll also reflected con- cern that the rule of law/police was not completely independent of the administration, even though the “Yes’ vote was over the 50 per cent mark. For example in both the BT and RCB surveys, the ‘Yes’ vote was only marginally higher at 68 per cent from 67 per cent (BT) but significantly lower at 67 per cent from 77 per cent (RCB).

Is ‘abuse of power’ a thing of the past? ‘Maybe yes, maybe no’ appeared to be the view of respondents from both surveys. The ‘Yes’

vote fell to 76 per cent from 83 per cent (pre budget) in the RCB survey while it dropped to 58 per cent from 70 per cent in the BT study.

Corruption, abuse of power, rule of law and freedom of expression were the fundamental reasons why Mahinda Rajapaksa failed at the January 8 Presidential poll, analysts said, and on all these counts the popularity of the new Government appears to be slipping, these surveys show.

Nine questions were asked in both polls, the others being: Are appointments to the public sector based on merit and competence? Is the new administration efficient? Is the new administration speedy on decision-making? Have efficient and competent persons been appointed as ministers? and ‘Have measures been taken to reduce the cost of living?’

A 10th question was asked in the BT email poll which was: “It has been suggested that a caretaker government should be appointed when elections are held in June. Is this a good proposal?” The number of “Yes’ responses to this question fell to 68 per cent from 79 per cent in the pre budget poll.

While the BT poll took into account the ‘No” and ‘Undecided” responses, the RCB survey focused on the “Yes” answer.