BN eyes PKR seats in quest for two-thirds majority

By Shannon Teoh

July 18, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Umno Youth’s new campaign next month has targeted at least nine PKR seats that can be won to help reclaim Barisan Nasional’s (BN) customary two-thirds majority of Parliament or 148 seats

Khairy Jamaluddin: Youth to spearhead campaign.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak had tasked the youth wing to deliver what is known as the Retain and Regain (R&R) programme, which covers 51 swing seats won with a majority of less than 3,000 votes in Election 2008.

The success of the Regain segment will be crucial to Najib’s hopes of remaining in power, said to be guaranteed only if he regains the two-thirds control ceded in 2008.

“The prime minister wants us to be more inclusive and not just target party followers anymore,” Khairy, who is Rembau MP, told The Malaysian Insider. “If despite everything, you voted for us in 2008, then you’re with us come hell or high water.”

Several Umno Youth executive committee members told The Malaysian

Insider that nearly half of the swing seats were won by Pakatan Rakyat (PR), and a check shows that at least nine are urban and semi-urban seats held by PKR.

“Yes, the Regain part overlaps with PKR — the young in developed areas who are educated and question everything,” Khairy said.

PKR strategists have also said that its newly launched Demi Rakyat campaign seeks to tap into the economic frustrations of the urban and semi-urban working class, a demographic the party says forms over 60 per cent of the electorate in seats it contested.

But Khairy is confident that new BN Youth programmes such as offering

employment to fresh graduates, scholarships and cheaper housing (respectively called Job Fair, YES and HOPE) will address “problems that PR can bring up but not solve”.

Khairy told The Malaysian Insider that the R&R campaign would kick off in earnest after the fasting month in August, a clear sign that Umno president Najib will not call general election before September.

Key to the strategy is a new media unit under Umno Youth’s information bureau.

“The younger generation gets it but the top leadership only do it at a superficial level,” Khairy said. “Their platforms are not personal. People want to follow people. For example, Najib has more followers than the prime minister’s office on Twitter.”

The youth chief added that social media allowed messages to become viral due to the momentum it gained via recommendations or reposts.

With Malaysians increasingly being found online — 11.3 million on Facebook as at last month — and Malay and English print circulation dropping, Umno Youth sees a return to 2004 as crucial.

PKR made the biggest gains among all parties in Election 2008, swelling from one to 31 MPs after the landmark election. However, it is still seen as having the smallest grassroots machinery and support among the tripartite opposition pact.

The Malaysian Insider saw a document that listed PKR seats such as Hulu Selangor, Indera Mahkota, Kuantan, Lembah Pantai and Bandar Tun Razak.