Umno MP: GE13 exposed 'glaring weakness' in BN

The recently concluded 13th general election exposed a "glaring weakness" in the BN machinery, said Umno's Pulai MP Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Speaking at a post-GE forum in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Nur Jazlan (left) conceded that Pakatan Rakyat used the fledgling social media much better than BN to deliver their campaign messages.

"Pakatan delivered their message much better because of the Internet," Nur Jazlan said at the forum organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club Malaysia (FCCM) at the Corus Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

"We have been losing grounds in only city areas in the past, now we are also losing ground in the semi-urban areas. We really need to re-look at our election strategy," said Nur Jazlan.

He warned that should BN fail to change its strategies to address its weaknesses, Malaysia will remain a "divided nation".

"The urban-rural divide will continue to be huge, BN must bridge the gap," he said.

Umno lost Chinese support, not MCA

Nur Jazlan contended that the pattern of Chinese votes moving away from the ruling coalition was not so much a BN problem, but one that is afflicting MCA, its Chinese-based component party.

"It is specifically a MCA problem," he argued.

However, his fellow panelist, DAP's Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong (right) said that the swing of Chinese votes against BN has nothing to do with MCA because the party had become "irrelevant since 1990".

"Since the 1990 general elections, I think Chinese community had stopped voting for MCA," he said, arguing that it was Umno instead that was pulling in the Chinese votes on behalf of the coalition.

"Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Vision 2020 announced 1991 gave a place for the middle-ground Chinese. It was the Umno president who always reached out to the community," he added.

But Liew said that the Chinese support for Umno has been on the decline since July 2005, attributing it to the party's 2005 general assembly where the issue of Malay rights and the New Economic Policy (NEP) were rowdily debated.

"That's where they began losing Chinese and Indian support. Umno lost that support, not MCA," he said.