Pride came before BN’s fall, says PPBM man

Tariq Ismail rejects the notion that the Mahathir factor was the main cause of the coalition's defeat.

Tariq Ismail says Barisan Nasional leaders were too smug to go down to the ground.

PETALING JAYA: PPBM Supreme Council member Tariq Ismail Mustafa has rejected a Barisan Nasional (BN) assessment that the coalition’s electoral defeat was due mainly to the so-called Mahathir factor, saying it was pride that caused its fall.

“In truth, the main cause of BN’s loss, especially in Johor and specifically in Sri Gading, was BN’s arrogance,” he said in a statement responding to former deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Karpawi.

Aziz, who failed to defend his Sri Gading parliamentary seat, said yesterday that Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s leadership of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and the attraction of young voters to the coalition had caused the downfall of BN and Umno in Johor.

Tariq, who heads PPBM’s Sri Gading division, said BN had “always been too arrogant and boastful in the face of the reality” around it.

He said BN had mistakenly thought that it could “automatically win” if its candidates were local to the constituencies where they were fielded. It ignored other factors that were in play, he added.

Aziz, who lost in a three-cornered fight against PPBM secretary-general Shaharuddin Md Salleh and M Ash’ari of PAS, had also attributed BN’s loss to “false accusations” against 1MDB.

Tariq said PH’s strategy was to get close to the constituents on the ground, and that national issues like 1MDB had less impact on the voting pattern than immediate concerns like the rising cost of living.

BN leaders’ ignorance of this showed that they had “never set foot on real ground”, he added. -FMT