Umno president Najib Abdu Razak said the party's political perception should change according to the latest trend instead of following the old way of winning support for the BN.

NONE He said Umno must always be fresh by undergoing transformation according to the differing and constantly changing political environment.

He said the transformation trend must be carried out to counter allegations by the opposition who were always trying to confuse the people with reasonable perceptions.

"Although Umno is 64 years old and a mature product, it must be changed according to the political climate so that the people would continue to support Umno," he said at the delegates meeting of the Bagan Datoh Umno division in Perak, today.

The Prime Minister conceded that politics had its ups and downs as it was normal, in fact in a parliamentary democracy system or democracy based on the perception system, the volatility was normal and could not be avoided.

"What is important for us is to accept the ups and downs but because this is quite uncomfortable, we should be more determined and work harder in drawing up the political strategy, strengthen team work so that with this awareness in resurgence, we can achieve success," he said.

"The problem that we face is that the people's thinking change from time to time because the old guard comprising the independence fighters is diminishing," he said.

Opposition spinning stories

Najib said the group who had opposed the Malayan Union was diminishing...in the Pekan Umno division, for example, only one or two of the 'angkatan 46' who opposed the Malayan Union were still active and holding posts as Umno branch heads.

He said the successes achieved in the past through racial unity between the Malays, Chinese and Indians through the Alliance had changed to the BN which was still strong even till today.

He said there were now experts in turning around stories where the truth was merely one per cent but by manipulating the stories, they managed to make the truth appear to be 10 per cent.

As an example, he said during the recent Sibu parliamentery by-election, the DAP had manipulated the facts and claimed that the Scorpene submarine could not dive whereas it was merely a technical problem and not that it could not dive at all.

- Bernama