Jordan Times
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
High living costs top citizens’ perceptions of gov’t priorities
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN — High living costs topped citizens’ perceptions of government priorities
for the first time in 10 years, a national poll revealed Tuesday.
Over the past decade, Jordanians believed that unemployment, poverty and
corruption were the three major problems, which required immediate government
act.
Pollsters of the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan
said “the significant shift could be attributed to the fact that Jordanians are
beginning to suffer under the rising cost of living”.
The poll showed that 25 per cent of the public opinion leaders’ sample,
comprising 627 respondents, placed high living costs and price hikes as their
top priority together with unemployment, also at 25 per cent.
In the national sample of 1,163 respondents, unemployment was the top priority
at 35.2 per cent followed by high living costs and price hikes at 26 per cent.
“The consecutive hikes in oil prices over the past year, and especially the most
recent one, seem to have affected Jordanians,” said pollster Mohammad Masri.
“Maybe in general people feel there is a high level of inflation. This is
reflected in the rise in prices of land, construction and property, which have
been increasing over the past two years. But the hike in fuel prices seems to
have added to people’s financial burdens.”
In April, the government raised prices of fuel derivatives for the third time in
10 months as part of its plan to completely lift the fuel subsidy by next year
to reduce an increasing budget deficit caused by surging international oil
prices. Observers believe that opinion leaders placing price hikes as a top
priority was an indication that the country’s middle class is the most affected.
Most of those representing the sample — former officials, journalists and
writers, university teachers, political parties and professional association
leaders, businesspeople and other professionals — are from the middle class. The
survey, carried out between June 16-23, was conducted to evaluate the
performance of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit’s government after 200 days in
office.
It was the latest in a series of CSS polls conducted since 1996 to gauge public
expectations of governments when they are sworn- in and the evaluation of their
performance after their first 100 days, six months and one year in office.
Tuesday’s survey showed a slight improvement in public evaluation of government
performance, compared to that made after the first 100 days. At the same time,
there was a slight decline in the evaluation made by the opinion leaders’
sample, pollsters said.
The survey showed that the percentage of respondents from the national sample
who believe that Bakhit’s government was successful in shouldering its
responsibilities nudged up by three percentage points to 59 per cent compared to
the first 100 days.
In contrast, the opinion leaders’ sample recorded a drop of four percentage
points, to 64 per cent.
According to CSS acting Director Faris Breizat, the upward trend in the
percentages recorded for the national sample as well as the slight drop of
approval in the opinion leaders’ sample were “insignificant from a statistical
point of view”.
“Statistically, the difference between the percentages recorded in the 200 days
poll and the 100 days poll are not significant, which means that the evaluation
of government performance is at a standstill,” Breizat said. He added the
findings were in line with the general trend of decline in public confidence in
consecutive governments over the past 10 years.
According to the survey, 18 per cent of Jordanians from the national sample said
the government has been successful “to a large extent” in shouldering its
responsibilities — the same percentage registered after 100 days in office.
The survey also showed that 13 per cent of respondents from the same sample
believe that the government was unsuccessful in shouldering its responsibilities
— down from 16 per cent after 100 days. Upon its formation, 7.1 per cent
expected the government not to succeed.
In comparison, 24 per cent of opinion leaders currently believe that the
government was successful to “a large extent” in shouldering its
responsibilities — down from 27 per cent in April.
Also in line with a growing trend of dissatisfaction with government
performance, nine per cent of opinion leaders’ sample said they believed the
government was unsuccessful in shouldering its responsibilities — up from seven
per cent registered after 100 days in office.
“The upward trend or slightly positive attitude shown by the national sample
could mean that people are more open to the government and that actions taken by
this current Cabinet were received better and welcomed,” Breizat said.
“It shows that people are ready to listen and take whatever the government is
offering.”
For example, the poll showed an improvement in the evaluation by national sample
respondents of the government’s handling of major issues included in the Letter
of Designation.
When the Cabinet was formed last November, the national sample said they
believed it would perform well on 17 of the 19 issues in the Letter of
Designation. This sample now believes that the 24-member government was
successful in tackling 14 items. Most prominent of these were providing housing
for those on limited incomes, working on a democratic political parties law and
increasing the number of health insurance beneficiaries. The survey also showed
that opinion leaders’ evaluation of government performance declined from
expectations of success in 14 items out of 19, to eight now.
Mandated item include eradicating poverty and unemployment, improving people’s
living standards, fighting corruption, coming up with democratic elections,
political parties and municipalities laws and applying equal employment
opportunities.