PETALING JAYA: Barisan Nasional chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has urged the coalition not to rest on its laurels after winning the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections, saying the victories may not necessarily translate into similar results in a general election.
Zahid said the new reality was that political parties could no longer assume voters would remain loyal to them.
“They can make different choices between a general election and a state election, or even a by-election, based on the candidates, the government’s performance, local issues, economic conditions, and the political parties’ ability to offer solutions to their lives,” he said at a BN forum titled “Post-Johor and Negeri Sembilan: A new dynamic in Malaysian politics?” this evening.
Zahid, who is also the Umno president, said this shift was most evident among the younger generation.
“Previously, it was said that young people were not backing us. But now, we have seen in many polling stations where young voters have returned to BN.
“(But) it is no longer certain that the youth vote will remain a political deposit for any particular political party. That is why we cannot simply ask the younger generation to understand the history of our struggle. We must give them a reason to believe in the future we want to build,” he said.
He said the same applied with Malay voters.
“I do not want to be too quick to say that they have fully returned to Umno or BN. Perhaps they are giving us another chance, and that trust can be withdrawn if we fail, become complacent, or take things for granted,” he said.
The same could be said of Chinese and Indian voters, he said, cautioning BN against assuming too quickly that they have abandoned Pakatan Harapan and returned to the coalition in large numbers.
Thus, BN’s task after its victories in Johor and Negeri Sembilan is not merely to maintain the momentum, but to understand it.
This would help the coalition avoid repeating its past mistakes when the bigger contest arrived, he said.
BN won 48 of the 56 seats in Johor, while its electoral pact with Perikatan Nasional secured 25 of the 36 seats in Negeri Sembilan.
Think tank Ilham Centre previously said the blue wave had the potential to sweep up to 122 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia into the BN-PN fold going into the next general election.
