KUALA KANGSAR, Apr 8 – The Barisan Nasional (BN) machinery must be alert to and be able to counter surprise last minute attacks by the opposition to bring down BN in the 14th General Election, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. He said each time there was an election, the opposition would resort to all kinds of attacks in trying to bring down BN candidates and the coalition.
“That is the reality, issues that never cropped up before, character assassination of candidates without any basis, will come to the fore, why? It is because the opposition will be looking for issues to weaken our spirit to bring down our candidates, to bring down the coalition (BN).
“I am reminding the (BN) machinery in Perak and all over the country to be prepared for these attacks. But with strong faith and fighting spirit, no matter how fast and furious these attacks come, we can neutralise them,” he said at a “meet-the-people session” with residents of Kuala Kangsar at Dewan Jubli Perak here today.
Ahmad Zahid said with strong solidarity and teamwork, BN would prevail. Ahmad Zahid who is also BN deputy chairman, also reminded the BN machinery not to prolong issues created by the opposition by spreading them further, as this could lead to disputes among the members, thus eroding their faith in the party.
He said they should be on guard for the ‘surprise last-minute attacks’ (SLMAs) by the opposition who are most certainly creating them for “carpet-bombing” to divert the attention of the BN machinery and voters.
“I want to remind that in the last GE, they said there were 40,000 Bangladesh voters who were brought in using 100 jumbo jets, clearly it was not the case, (but) we were very busy and in the end, nobody clarified the matter, and the voters’ perception was that the BN government cheated, when clearly this was not true.” he said.
Ahmad Zahid said with the growing influence of social media , the opposition would create SLMAs which will be spread throughout the country. “We have to evaluate every SLMA, because that is psychological warfare by them to weaken our spirit.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid said the machinery of all BN component parties must give their support to whoever is selected as a candidate by the state or and federal governments for GE14. “When the time comes for GE14, do not worry about who is contesting or who was selected, that is the decision of the state and federal leadership.
“What is important is that in Kuala Kangsar, this parliamentary seat must be defended, Manong and Bukit Chandan (state seats in the constituency ) must be defended by all of us (in BN),” he said. He said the majority obtained in the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat and the Manong and Bukit Chandan state seats were about 2,000 in the last general election because of internal problems in the party, not because the opposition was strong.
“The (Kuala Kangsar) parliamentary seat was won by more than 1,000 (votes), the state seats by less than 1,000, I am sure this was due to internal problems, which means it was not because the opposition was strong, but we were weak. Forget your jealousies….what is important is we need to rebuild the state government and defend Putrajaya,” he said. — Bernama
