Barisan Nasional chairperson Najib Abdul Razak has ordered all BN leaders to attend activities organised by races other than their own in order to win support for the coalition, particularly from the Chinese community.

khir toyo interview 121207 serious According to Sungai Besar Umno division chief Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, this was Najib’s instruction to Umno leaders during the party’s recent retreat in Janda Baik, Pahang.

“Previously Malay leaders would only go to Malay functions, Chinese to Chinese and so on,” said Khir, adding that Najib now wants Malay leaders to also attend functions and events organised by the Chinese community and vice-versa.

“We cannot confine our leaders according to racial lines, we should mix and match,” he said during a phone interview with Malaysiakini.

He said this in response to Nanyang Siang Pau ’s front page report today on Najib’s speech to Umno leaders last Friday, which touched on the need to capture at least 50 percent of the Chinese vote.

Won’t make MCA redundant

In the report, Najib was suppose to have called on Umno leaders to attend events, including funerals, weddings and major festivals to shore up support from the Chinese community.

NONE Khir denied that Najib’s latest directive would make BN’s second largest coalition partner, MCA, redundant.

“They can still play a part, but on a similar note, they too should attend events organised by the Malays,” he said.

He added that the directive was meant to get all BN leaders to engage with the public and portray the coalition as being inclusive.

 “We must get close to them, find what they want, their sensitive issue, their concerns, so that we can answer them... In my view, we need to broaden our scope and be a champion to all the races.”

S’wak polls this year?

Since the March 2008 general elections, BN has been unable to garner significant support from the Chinese community.

Most notably, BN only managed to secure about 25 percent of the Chinese votes during the Hulu Selangor by-election and lost in every Chinese-majority polling district.

Khir said the new approach was one of the many topics brought up during the retreat, which main agenda was for the 192 Umno divisions to table its key-performance index reports.

Without elaborating on the other strategies discussed, Khir said these plans would be evaluated when the same meeting is held within six months to a year. He was however tightlipped about the other strategies.

He said the strategies were devised with the next general election and the upcoming Sarawak state elections in mind.

“The Sarawak state election will be early, before next year. We will be prepared to face it and also for the general elections after that,” he said.