General election only when BN fully prepared, says Annuar

 

Former Barisan Nasional secretary-general Annuar Musa said success in state elections had come with full concentration of party resources, which would be diluted at a general election. (Facebook pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional must be really ready and confident of the support of the majority of the people before Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob can call for a general election, the coalition’s former secretary-general, Annuar Musa, said today.

Annuar, who serves in Ismail’s Cabinet as communications and multimedia minister, agreed that the time had come to start preparing for the next general election, which must be called by mid-2023.

He said that the best thing to do now was to review all relevant matters, including public sentiment.

“If we are really ready, I think it should be expedited. The date is up to the prime minister’s discretion after holding internal talks with the Umno Supreme Council,” he wrote in a Facebook posting today.

In a separate posting, he said that the best time for a general election is when Umno had succeeded in uniting the political ranks of the Malays, “so that we do not jump into the general election in an atmosphere of divorce”. His remark appeared to refer to the split between Umno and its former political allies Bersatu and PAS.

Annuar said Umno had been founded with the aim of uniting the strength of the Malays.

He hailed Ismail’s statement earlier today that the elections could not be held just because of the insistence of a small group. Annuar said the statement reflected wisdom and political maturity, Bernama reported.

He said a general election was not a small matter, involving the dissolution of a ruling government which had the mandate of almost all Dewan Rakyat members.

He said Ismail represented a minority party in the 222-member Dewan Rakyat, as BN accounted for only 41 of the seats held by Ismail’s governing coalition, and discussions within the government side must be taken into account.

Ismail heads a coalition comprising BN (41 seats), Perikatan Nasional (53), GPS of Sarawak (18), Parti Bangsa Malaysia (2) and PBS (1). The coalition also has the support of Pakatan Harapan (90) which has signed an undertaking to maintain political stability until Parliament’s term ends next year.

Annuar said the date for the dissolution of the Dewan Rakyat must be kept secret by the ruling party and remain at the discretion of the prime minister, and could not be decided through organised pressure.

He said preparations for a general election would require a top leadership that was responsible for the party’s preparedness in terms of resources, logistics, finance, organisation and strategy.

BN’s victories in the Melaka and Johor state elections came about because the party leadership knew their preparedness apart from the people’s sentiments in supporting the state government’s decisions.

“At the central level, these sentiments need to be scrutinised because if something else is done other than (according to) the people’s sentiments, they will show their reactions through the ballot box,” he said.

Annuar also said the results of the two state elections were also due to the support of the party headquarters, prime minister, ministers and deputy ministers, chief ministers and division heads nationwide which is unmatched by any other party.

“In the general election, this won’t happen because everyone will be busy taking care of their own areas and if the preparations, especially resources and finance, are insufficient then the whole machinery will be completely paralysed,” said Annuar. - FMT