GEORGE TOWN: Barisan Nasional has decided to go on a campaign to disprove the popular notion that Umno gets its way by bullying other members of the coalition into submission.
Billed as the 1BN Campaign, the project is being initiated in Penang. It was one of the major items on the agenda of a meeting this morning between Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Penang BN liaison committee members.
Those who attended the meeting included Penang BN chairman Koh Tsu Koon, Penang Gerakan chairman Teng Hock Nan and the leaders of other parties in the coalition.
Part of the strategy is to increase the number of BN-oriented programmes—as opposed to those promoting individual coalition partners—to convince Penang residents that BN is a power-sharing political entity that advocates equality and is committed to serving all citizens.
The campaign would be part of BN’s preparation for the next election, said Hilmi Yahaya, who is the secretary of Penang BN, chairman of Umno’s Balik Pulau division and the state assemblyman for Teluk Bahang.
“By organising more programmes on the BN platform, we should able to demonstrate the coalition’s unity and solidarity to Penangites,” he told newsmen after the meeting.
Like several other local Umno leaders, Hilmi believes that the 1BN programmes would show Penang residents that the party did not deserve its “big bully” label.
He claimed that Umno neither dominated coalition politics nor treated coalition partners as if it was their big brother.
“The truth is that Umno treats all BN partners as equal comrades in arms,” he said. “This is the message we want to give the people.”
If Umno was really the power-crazy big bully it had been made out to be, he argued, it could have opted to rule the country on its own after the 2004 general election, when it had the simple majority to do so.
“But we didn’t monopolise power because we acknowledged and respected the gentlemen’s agreement among coalition partners on power sharing,” he said.
Pakatan's political spins
Hilmi is confident that the 1BN programmes will correct Umno’s image.
“The programmes will demonstrate that BN is a united front with an unshakable power sharing concept,” he said.
He acknowledged that BN’s recent electoral reverses could be partly attributed to Umno’s image as the bully in the coalition.
Penang BN will also step up its information drive to counter what it calls “political spins” by Pakatan Rakyat.
At this morning’s meeting, Muhyiddin instructed state BN leaders to mount an information blitz so that people would be aware of the coalition’s successes in its pro-people programmes.
Penang Umno secretary Azhar Ibrahim, who was at the meeting, told reporters many Penang residents were unaware that the federal government had been paying out RM1.7 billion annually in salaries to teachers in vernacular Tamil and Chinese schools.
He took a swipe at the state government for “constantly spinning, twisting and turning issues based on falsehoods” to discredit BN.
“We must constantly reach out to the people as a united front to counter Pakatan’s political manipulation,” he said.
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