BOMBSHELL – BN SUSPENDED, SAYS UMNO IN FINAL SLAP TO MCA, MIC: ‘THERE WERE 30 SEATS WE COULD HAVE WON IF WE HAD COOPERATED WITH PAS,’ SAYS SEC-GEN ANNUAR MUSA

BARISAN Nasional has been suspended temporarily to explore the possibilities of fostering other political partnerships, said Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa.

The former minister said Umno was going through a “new phase” and the BN component parties needed to be pragmatic and look at the possibility of working with other parties.

“We have decided that component parties must take care of themselves for the time being.

“BN for the time being needs to be suspended for a little while. Let us try a new approach,” Annuar told The Malaysian Insight.

There were initially 13 parties in BN but after the 14th general election, the coalition is now only left with MCA, MIC and Umno.

Component parties in BN, including those in Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), still retain a good relationship but need to take care of their own houses first before rebuilding the coalition, he said.

“We need to be very pragmatic. We cannot afford to sit on our past successes, still thinking of the glorious days of BN.  We need to instead make a practical assessment,” Annuar added.

The Ketereh MP said the previous “unwritten understanding” in BN was not effective and that had cost the coalition its victory in GE14.

“There was an unwritten understanding on quotas (of seats), we became less flexible and at the end of the day, we lost some seats.

“There were almost 30 parliamentary seats that we should have won if we had cooperated with PAS but we stayed put and rigid.

“Those three-cornered fights never worked in our favour and, in fact, were advantageous to the new political parties. How much damage has been done for being so rigid? We now have to look at political configurations.”

BN won only 79 seats in GE14 and now left with 54 seats after the defection of several lawmakers and component parties quitting the coalition.

The Umno man also welcomed MCA’s idea of using its party logo to contest the coming Balakong by-election.

If it happens, the senior BN component party would be breaking from convention by dropping the BN logo.

“They are most welcome to do that. That is part of the acid test and we will like to see the result. We do not have a problem with that.

“At Umno level, we agree if MCA contests under its own logo. Later on, if Umno decides to contest using its own logo, we can also do that.”  

MCA president Liow Tiong Lai said the party is mulling contesting under its own logo in Balakong.

In the recently concluded Sg Kandis by-election, Umno’s Lokman Noor Adam contested under the BN banner.

BN suffered its first defeat in more than 60 years when the Dr Mahathir Mohamad-led Pakatan Harapan swept to victory in GE14 to form a new government.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com