Tsu Koon: 'We are preparing the candidates' Muhyiddin: 'Too early. Reform party first.'

By Jeff Ooi,

Don't put the cart before the horse, and don't count the eggs before there are hatched.

That's the way Umno No. 2 has publicly rebutted Gerakan No. 1 on how BN should prepare for the next general election expected anytime before March 2013.

However, the news of Umno censuring Gerakan only appeared in Sin Chew Daily, the top-selling Chinese newspaper in the country.

September 27, Dr Koh (backdoor minister) Tsu Koon announced in Batu Pahat that Parti Gerakan has initiated a talent-scouting exercise nationwide to prepare for a pool of winnable candidates to be fielded in the next general elections.

The potential candidates shall include current and retired elected representatives and those who stood but lost in GE2008, Tsu Koon said.

However, Deputy PM and Umno deputy chief Muhyiddin Yassin disagreed.

'Reform now, candidates later'

On September 28, Muhyiddin announced in Putrajaya that it was too premature to draw up the candidate list at this juncture.

What is more pertinent, Muhyiddin said, is for all BN parties to hasten the pace of reforms, besides holding more people-oriented activities.

"After GE2008, everyone without fail had expected all-round change for BN component parties," said Muhyiddin.

"This is very important," he added. "If the BN component parties don't reform, I fear the people will perceive that BN is incapable of change, and they will no longer have confidence in BN and the government."

Muhyiddin clarified that it was not wrong to start preparing early for the candidates, but he felt it was still too premature to do so at this juncture.

He advised Gerakan to better leave the matter for internal deliberations by the coalition's highest leadership.

'Umno should be Penang BN chief'

Umno sources told Screenshots that Muhyiddin took to dampening Tsu Koon because the Umno hawk felt he hadn't seen the current Gerakan leadership initiate any effective reform programmes within the party. Nor was there a strategic direction from Gerakan or Penang BN to re-capture the state from Pakatan Rakyat.

In fact, Umno Penang had voiced its desire to drop Tsu Koon as the state BN Chief, and to have the post passed on to Umno.

In Penang, Umno is the sole Opposition with 11 seats in the State Assembly. With all 13 candidates it fielded in GE2008 annihilated, Gerakan is zero for now.

MCA lost all 9 state seats it contested in 2008. Thus far, Penang MCA has echoed in support of Umno's demand.