BN lost because of Pakatan’s single logo, Najib attacks, says Zahid

Chan Kok Leong Chan Kok Leong Updated 7 years ago · Published on 22 Jun 2018 11:11PM · 7 Comments

Acting Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says Pakatan Harapan relentlessly attacked 'one person' ahead of the May 9 polls. – screen grab from Astro Awani video, June 22, 2018.

BARISAN Nasional’s GE14 defeat was put down to Pakatan Harapan’s use of a single logo and the attacks against “one person”, said acting Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

In his first live interview since the May 9 polls, the former deputy prime minister said PH’s “non-conventional” approach had brought down BN.

“The first non-conventional approach was where they had decided to use only one logo, where one of the parties was willing to drop the use of their rocket (DAP logo). And although there were voices against this in the party, they went through with it,” said Zahid in the interview with with Astro Awani.

The other thing that PH did was to attack one person relentlessly with all kinds of allegations, said the Bagan Datoh MP. 

“The court of public opinion had sentenced him early before May 9 itself,” he added.

Zahid, however, stopped short of naming Umno president and prime minister Najib Razak or attributing BN’s defeat to him. 

In the run-up to GE14, PH had blamed Najib for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal and the rising of cost of living caused by the implementation of the goods and services tax.

He said these two approaches had shook BN and caused their defeat.

“Although 60% of the seats are rural but 60% of the voters came from the urban areas. And these voters did not get their information from conventional methods but from their finger tips (digital),” said Zahid.

Zahid, who will face veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin in next week’s party polls, believes that it is now up to him to turn the party around.

“It is now my responsibility to rebuild the party, and we will become monitors of the new government,” said Zahid, when asked if the party leadership should take responsibility for Umno’s defeat and quit.

“When we are in power, we have support from many quarters including the government. Our popular vote (among Malays) is 46%. This shows that Malay support for us is still strong. 

“And it is higher than the previous elections,” said Zahid.

In the 2008 polls, BN won 51.39% (-12.46%) of the popular vote to secure 140 of the 222 seats in Parliament. BN’s share of the popular vote declined in 2013 to 47.38% (-4.01%), for 133 seats. In the 14th general election, BN’s share of the popular vote plummeted to 33.8% (-13.58%), winning 79 federal seats.

When asked how he would rebuild the party, Zahid said Umno needed to change its mindset from being in government to becoming the opposition.

He added that he would cleanse the party after winning the party polls, and vowed to be more inclusive. 

“I will not sideline the other two candidates in this race and hopefully, all the other leaders who win will work with me to rebuild Umno,” said Zahid. – June 22, 2018.

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Comments

  • True Blue UMNO BARU..Revisionism even in the modern digital social media age. 20 years of declining voter support including Malays is not facts. If the facts are too unpleasant, just keep telling lies. How to reform?

    Posted 7 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • You are to be blamed too. You made a personal insult on Tun M. You question his ancestry. Btw, from where did you come from?

    Posted 7 years ago by Henry Mancini Jr · Reply

  • If you can not counter attack plan A, B, C, you are simply a loser.

    Delaying PPBM registration and single logo brought much harder against you. Do you remember?

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

    • *hatred

      Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Zahid you guys will never learn. Yes its part of the reason, but mainly its your arrogance and the attitude of being above the law and stealing everything in sight that lost the battle. You sanctioned bullying and intimidation. You corrupted every institution, you were rotten to the core. People saw that, you didn't.

    Posted 7 years ago by Alphonz Jayaraman · Reply

  • I love Zahid whenever he opens his mouth. Jokes, bullshits, lies, garbage pours out. He reminds me of axa affin chief agency officer - a queky psychopath. Big loud filthy mouth - empty vessel appointed to lead axa agents. Within 4 years - axa sank to the bottom of the Jamban. Read more at changenow083.blogspot.com - and with Zahid leading umno - it will certainly head south (faster).

    Posted 7 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • No, Zahid, that is not the real reason. It looks like Umno really, really, got no clue why they lost. They are still blur till today. This shows how out of touch they were with reality. You must know that the true reason before you can embark to reform Umno. As long as you cannot diagnose correctly the reason, Umno will be heading to oblivion, or become a hardline militant party to appeal to the hardliners. Umno lost because of Najib, period. The reality at ground - rakyat is feeling the pinch n hardship caused by high debt due to 1MDB, n Najib's hardline version of Islam - he was two-faced: at the international level he portrayed himself as a moderate Muslim, but in his own country, he allowed the hardliners to have their heyday. They clamped down the basic rights of the rakyat, they allowed hardline Islam to flourish to the point of tabling the hudud law at the Parliament. He forbid the use of the word "Allah" by Christians, he go after anyone who does not share the same viewpoint as Umno, he allowed gangsters like Jamal Yunos to threatened rational minded rakyat, n Umno has became extremely arrogant. These are a few of the main reasons of BN downfall, n if your assessment didn't include any of these points, means you are off-mark.

    Posted 7 years ago by Peace Maker · Reply