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'TIME magazine said Anwar was more popular but Dr M won'
Published:  May 23, 2017 10:44 PM
Updated: May 24, 2017 2:33 AM
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Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said TIME magazine had in the past named Anwar Ibrahim as man-of-the-year and claimed he was more popular than then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but it was the latter that emerged victorious.

He said this in response to a TIME report today claiming that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was less popular than an already unpopular US President Donald Trump.

"Hillary Clinton is supposed to be more popular than Donald Trump, and even president Obama supported her, but still Trump won the presidency.

"And TIME voted Anwar Ibrahim the man-of-the-year and more popular than Mahathir but yet Mahathir won the 1999 general election," he said.

Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and subsequently jailed.

His wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, led Parti Keadilan Nasional to challenge Mahathir, whose Malay support in the 1999 general election was significantly eroded, but managed to retain power.

Cautioning against the accuracy of polls, Salleh also said TIME's claim carries no meaning outside of Pekan, where Najib won the parliamentary constituency with a landslide victory in the 2013 general election.

"This so-called TIME opinion poll is not relevant to Malaysian politics and will not really sway public opinion as those who support the opposition, or otherwise, are not going to shift just because Time says Trump is more popular than Najib outside the town of Pekan," he said.

In 2013, Najib won the Pekan constituency with 51,278 votes to the PKR's 15,665 votes.

Salleh also questioned how the conclusion that Najib was less popular than Trump was arrived at.

"How did TIME conduct this opinion poll? How many respondents were polled and where do these respondents live?

"Is TIME saying that Najib and the other four world leaders are less popular than Trump in Terengganu and Kelantan or in New York City?" he asked.

TIME magazine had included Najib in its list of five world leaders who the publication claimed are less popular than Trump, citing the 1MDB scandal and the multi-billion deposits in his personal bank accounts.

Apart from Najib, the others were Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Brazilian President Michel Temer, South African President Jacob Zuma and Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras.

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