Five states ‘in danger’ for BN in GE, says Khir Toyo

(TMI) – Former Umno supreme council member Dr Mohd Khir Toyo has singled out five states which will be difficult for Barisan Nasional (BN) to win or retain in the next election, saying that the ruling coalition’s old formula of attracting voters no longer worked.

The states named by Khir were Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Perak as well as the Federal Territories, where the influx of newly-registered voters has resulted in an almost equal demography between Malay and non-Malay voters.

“These are tricky… Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Wilayah if you look at these voters, the non-Malay voters are almost equivalent to Malay voters in terms of numbers, they are almost balanced.

“These states are in danger,” Khir (picture) told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview last week.

The former Selangor mentri besar said that while most Malays still supported Umno, most of the Malay party’s vote bank came from rural areas, while voters in more “urban” states and areas would end up voting for Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“It is not because the opposition is good. No, they have a lot of weaknesses. Have they fulfilled all their election promises? No.

“But the urban areas are very dangerous in these states. The mistake is to make Umno too dominant… there is a danger of losing,” he said.

Making non-Malay voters feel powerless while making Umno do all of BN’s work will result in a steady decline of support towards the ruling coalition, Khir added.

“I learn from my mistakes. To make Umno too dominant in BN is not good. Overall the federal leadership must have other strategies.

“You look at PAS, they are more dangerous than Umno but non-Malays support them… why? Because they are not dominant in Pakatan,” Khir stressed.

The Umno leader lamented how it was difficult to gauge how much support BN had among other races, and blamed component parties MCA, MIC and Gerakan for not being aggressive enough.

Another issue, he said, was a disconnect between non-Malay voters and Umno in the form of language barriers.

“MCA, MIC are supposed to go to the ground, talk to these people. Umno has done it for the Malays.

“When Umno tries to go to talk to non-Malays, sometimes there is a language barrier, for example, in the city they talk English, some Umno leaders cannot understand,” he added.

The solution, said Khir, was for BN to “empower” MCA, MIC, and Gerakan party leaders by allowing them to announce allocations and projects for their own communities instead of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak doing so.

The Umno leader said that non-Malays had lost “respect” for BN component party leaders as they were seen as not being able to do anything to help their own communities.

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/five-states-in-danger-for-bn-in-ge-says-khir-toyo/