Thursday, March 06, 2008

Why the BN Has Survived This Long...

...because it has been fair and worked for the interest of all races, said Umno president and BN chairman Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

He was speaking at a meet-the-people gathering at Padang Tembak in Penang yesterday.

According to Bernama, Abdullah said the BN held fast to the principle of consensus-building as proven in the 1990 general election when Gerakan won only seven state seats while MCA and MIC did not win any, whereas Umnoi won 12 seats.

The rest of the story follows. And I know what you're thinking....


"Umno wanted to take over the chief minister's (CM) post (in Penang) but I said 'No'... because, going by our previous consensus in Penang, and as the majority (on the island) were Chinese, it was only logical that the CM came from the Chinese community.

"Based on the BN's consensus principle, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was chosen to be the CM," Abdullah said at a meet-the-people function in Padang Tembak here Wednesday.

Also present were Gerakan adviser Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting and acting Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

The prime minister said only the BN had a true alliance of the people of Malaysia.

He denied allegations that Umno was greedy and wanted to dominate the other parties in the BN coalition.

Abdullah said that BN was always prepared to discuss any issue and seek solutions to any problems that might rise.

"We do not say one thing and do another... we are not chameleons," he said.

He said the BN placed a lot of importance on unity as its strength depended on it.

The prime minister also chided Penangites for demanding that the new chief minister to replace Dr Koh, be someone from the island itself.

But, when DAP members, for example Lim Guan Eng left his home state to come and contest here, there are people who are willing to support him.

"This should not be the case," he added.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i want to ask ... why mat sabu is contesting in terengganu. he's not even oghang ghanu. care to enlighten me , please ?

Anonymous said...

*yawn....*!

Anonymous said...

The BN has survived this long by gerrymandering the electoral boundaries every ten years, using the postal votes, keeping the campaign period very short, starting their campaign one month before the actual campaign begins by resorting to such scams as Pemimpin Bersama Rakyat, doling out money and projects during the one month and during the actual campaign period although it's only a caretaker government, abusing government media and government machinery, using Government servants to campaign, buying votes, phantom voters, expenditure exceeding what is allowed by law, and its Department of Dirty Tricks swinging into action in the three days before polling. In short, a lot of electoral fraud takes place and most of their candidates should be disqualified by the Election Court.