KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 ― Deputy ministers in the federal administration are far more responsive to queries sent through email or on social media by their constituents compared to Cabinet members, an NGO said today.

Political watchdog My Kuasa said 55 per cent of the deputy ministers contacted over a month-long study responded to questions posed within three days, and the percentage went up to 70 when the response period was extended to 10 days.

In contrast, only four out of 20 ministers included in the study ― which was limited to the peninsula ― responded to questions sent through mystery accounts posing as voters from their constituencies.

“Ministers have to take voter engagement more seriously. There are certain feudalistic things where the higher I am, the onus is on the voters to find me rather than making it accessible,” My Kuasa chief executive Praba Ganesan said during a press conference today.

“If the access is there then I think it is incumbent on the ministers to make it easy now for people to get hold of them,” he added.

Notable unresponsive ministers include Prime Minister and Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Transport Minister and Bentong MP Liow Tiong Lai, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also Rembau MP, as well as Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid who is also an MP for Padang Terap.

Praba pointed out that MPs in high Cabinet positions often did not engage with their constituents online, resulting in communication being mostly one-way.

“Like the prime minister's Facebook page, you can go but you can't message the the prime minister. Nobody is monitoring the comments so it’s one way communication.

“We don't assume the prime minister himself needs to check but we assume since the prime minister's department is such a huge department with huge number of people, it’s not hard to monitor and look at the comments asking for help,” Praba added.

Ministers' always being away from their constituency was also not justification for their unresponsiveness, Praba said, but instead reflected the mismanagement that may exist at their respective service centres.

He noted, however, that Deputy Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk MAS Ermieyati Samsudin, who is also the Masjid Tanah MP, was the most responsive deputy minister having responded promptly to emails and following up queries with a phone call.