Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak admitted today that the Barisan Nasional campaign machinery is old fashioned and could not match the more innovative DAP.

He told reporters that compared to the DAP election campaign, theirs is less creative and energetic.

"DAP is very aggressive and used sensitive issues in their campaigns. They also organised a lot of events and talks at night," he explained during a press conference today in Kuala Lumpur.

NONE Najib was commenting on Barisan Nasional's shock defeat to DAP yesterday during the Sibu by-election. DAP's Wong Ho Leng managed to edge BN's Robert Lau Hui Yew (right) by a tiny majority of 398 votes. 

"Of course DAP's campaigning has affected our chances. I admit that we are less creative and less energetic," he said when asked if this is one of the reasons BN had lost. 

The premier lamented that BN used to have the advantage in terms of campaigning tactics and hope that this lesson would bring reforms and improvements to their campaign machinery.

However he was quick to add that BN will not emulate the DAP campaigning style, as they had used sensitive issues.

"We won't be following the style of DAP," he added.

Majority too small, decision not conclusive

"The win is too small, just a 50/50 spilt. That is why it is difficult to say that the votes had swing one way or the other," he explained.

He believed that BN is still strong because their traditional voters are still intact, voting for the government.

"But we are more concern about the urban swing. It is something that we should study and understand why," he said adding that the government is conducting studies to find out the reasons they lost.

NONE When asked if the Chinese is instrumental to the lost and if this showed that they had favoured the opposition, Najib (left) said that the government needs to find out the reasons behind this.

"That is why we need to study and understand why. Is it a national, state or local issues? We have to take into account all the factors.

It is not time for us to point fingers, rather we should find out the real reasons and our weakness and how to improve ourselves," he explained.  

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