‘Shocked’ Muhyiddin says Pakatan must change drastically to avoid being one-term wonder
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) must make changes to both its strategy and execution if it intends to survive the next general election, coalition deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The Bersatu president was commenting on his party’s catastrophic lost in the Tanjung Piai by-election on Saturday, when Barisan Nasional’s (BN) MCA Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng won with a 15,086 majority.
“Yes, I was shocked. I thought many think tanks had conducted their survey and the results did not reflect their surveys. Government intelligence agencies did not predict the results. So could be because the public kept things to themselves and did not want to say much.
“But what is important is that after the elections we have had the results. We know and we must prioritise it.
“If PH wants to survive for more than a term, major drastic changes has to happen in many areas — where it’s policy, implementation, budget policy, fiscal policy, leadership... many things which we believe are important,” Muhyiddin told reporters.
Yesterday, PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he expected the coalition would lose, but he had thought the margin would not exceed 2,000 votes.
Muhyiddin said today the party will conduct a post-mortem analysis to determine if the loss was attributable to the election machinery, strategy, or Putrajaya’s policies.
Leadership issues will also come under the microscope when Bersatu meets tomorrow to prepare its presentation to the Pakatan Harapan presidential council, he said.
Muhyiddin said emphasis must be given to the coalition’s cohesiveness.
He also believed that more pro-people policy must be prioritised with a focus on economic development as it will directly benefit the B40 component.
“We know there were financial factors and so on. If we think this is the reason, we must rethink this and bring it to the finance minister to fine tune it and how we can implement it besides other issues that touches on education,” said Muhyiddin.
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