BARISAN Nasional must discard its old ways if it wants to recapture Selangor, coalition chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

Zahid, who is also Umno president, said the old ways include trying to woo voters through dinners and stopping more capable candidates of rising through the ranks.

“Selangor is an urban state, where voters now reside in condominiums and gated communities. We cannot use the old ways of reaching them by merely holding dinners and counting the attendance as support,” Zahid said at the close of the Selangor BN convention in Shah Alam tonight.

He said that these ways were ineffective and BN need to reach voters through a different approach.

Zahid was believed to be referring to Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who was appointed the Selangor Umno treasurer tonight.

Prior to his appointment, several Kuala Selangor Umno leaders had opposed his entry into their division after it was suggested that the former banker was considering running for parliament through their constituency.

“Don’t worry, as Tengku Zafrul will bring the ‘sugar’ you need to campaign,” Zahid said, adding that Selangor’s candidates must be “winnable, acceptable and likeable” or “wali”.

“That means if there are good candidates from outside our midst, even from friends of BN or other parties, we must accept them.

“We must stop this practice of being warlords and stopping winnable candidates, if we want to take back Selangor,” he said.

In the 2018 elections, Pakatan Harapan had won 51 out of 56 seats in the Selangor assembly, while BN took four and PAS one. 

However, following the Sheraton Move and Bersatu’s split from PH, the opposition coalition now has 40 seats, BN and Perikatan Nasional have five each followed by Pejuang (three), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (two) and Warisan (one).

PH, as Pakatan Rakyat, took control of Selangor in 2008 and has remained in control ever since. – July 31, 2022.