‘Underdog’ BN says Selangor voters ready for new government

Selangor BN coordinator Datuk Seri Mohd Zin Mohamed said the main reason for the return of voter support is PR’s inability to govern the country’s richest state. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Voters in Selangor are ready for a change in government after four years of unfulfilled election promises as well as a lack of development and infrastructure plans, the Barisan Nasional (BN) has said.

Selangor BN coordinator Datuk Seri Mohd Zin Mohamed believes that voter support is slowly returning to the federal coalition, saying that the main reason for this was Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) inability to govern the country’s richest state.

One of the main factors for the perception change among voters in the state, said Mohd Zin, was Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak personally spearheading Selangor BN’s campaign.

Najib is personally spearheading Selangor BN’s campaign. — file pic

“Datuk Seri Najib Razak will give confidence to the people in Selangor to return the mandate of the state back to BN.

“The basis for this is that after four years, or 1,440 days of PR’s Selangor government led by PKR, DAP and PAS many people still do not feel the impact or an improvement to quality of life,” Mohd Zin told Berita Minggu in an interview published today.

The Umno leader said that PR are still stuck in the “opposition mindset”, and that they only focus on talking about the weaknesses of the previous Selangor BN administration.

“What have they done to change the quality of life for people in Selangor? Let’s take infrastructure for an example... even though the responsibility of building roads to connect state to state belongs to the federal government, the state government is responsible for providing infrastructure, facilities to connect every district in Selangor.

“Selangor has nine districts and I have not seen any infrastructure development in the last four years,” he said.

The mismanagement of waste disposal and failure to manage local councillors are also additional weaknesses for the current state government under PKR’s Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Mohd Zin added.

He claimed that Khalid’s administration had reneged on their promise to appoint scholars and NGO members as local councillors, and that those currently on the council were members of PKR, PAS and DAP.

“Till today, they have not made good on their promise and shamelessly they ‘outsource’ the problems to the federal government... Where is the physical development for Selangor? I don’t see a master plan,” said the Umno leader.

Mohd Zin said PR are still stuck in the “opposition mindset”. — file pic

Mohd Zin said that unlike Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid, Najib has already shown BN’s ability to provide better development plans for the people of Selangor, through programmes such as the government transformation plan (GTP) and economic transformation plan (ETP).

“In Selangor, we are the ‘underdog.’ We used to dominate but the problem with this election is it’s not like we are taking a PMR exam... we either pass or fail.

“They (PR) used to throw all manner of accusation at us and gave us a bad name, but now we are closer to the people and we are responding to their allegations to return the confidence of the people back to us,” he said.

When asked whether the lack of Umno or BN leaders in Selangor would be a potential issue, Mohd Zin said the matter did not arise as Selangor BN already had a leader — PM Najib.

“We in Selangor in terms of Umno and BN, we are ‘team’ Datuk Seri Najib. We work together. No one dominates.”

BN’s rule in the state ended when it lost to PR in the 2008 general election. PR won 36 of the 56 state seats, and PKR’s Khalid replaced Dr Mohd Khir Toyo as MB.

Najib is expected to call for elections this year, after months of delivering one-off aid payments throughout the country as well as the unveiling of his administration’s minimum wage policy last week.