Taipei, April 1 (CNA) The results of a poll released Saturday show that 60 percent of the respondents are not optimistic about a pledge made by Premier Su Tseng-chang to improve social order within six months, although Su received the highest approval rating among high-ranking government officials.
"The results show that people are willing to give Su time to achieve his pledge, but most people realize that it will be hard to reduce crime in six months, " Tamkang University Professor Shih Cheng-feng said of the poll, which was conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion of Shih Hsin University.
Su declared March 15 that he will step down and quit politics for good if the people do not feel Taiwan's social order has improved within the next six months.
The poll results show that Su received a 40 percent approval rating, which is higher than Cabinet's 30 percent and President Chen Shui-bian's 19 percent. However, only 33 percent of the respondents expressed confidence that Su will be successful in reducing crime in six months.
Su will face a major challenge as government officials "above and under him" -- the president and the Cabinet -- both have lower approval ratings than him, said Yu Chi-lik, a professor at Shih Hsin University.
Guns and drugs were voted by respondents as the top priority in the crime crackdown. Fraud came in second, while safety of women and children ranked third.
The poll also found that the top three ministries with the highest approval ratings are the Consumer Protection Commission, the Environmental Protection Administration and the Fair Trade Commission.
A total of 1,099 valid samples were collected from March 26-28 in the telephone poll, which had a margin of error of 2.96 percentage points.