INTERVIEW The days of Umno winning solely based on party credentials are over, as a lot depends on putting up the right candidates, said party supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah.

Speaking on the party preparations for the 13th general election, Saifuddin said while the issue pertaining to party unity is common, Umno must select the right and proper candidates to ensure victory.

He also listed three other factors for Umno to secure a two-thirds majority.

Saifuddin, who is also Temerloh MP, said the party must be aware and understand the presence of the new group of Malaysians who have a high understanding of social realisation due to the presence of the new media like Facebook and Twitter as a means of communication.

NONE “As a result, they look at the credentials of the candidates and not much about the party now. Prior to 2008, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, when he was Umno president, used figures to describe which is important - the party or its candidates. He said winning depends 60 percent on the party and 40 percent on the candidates.

“I think nowadays, certainly it is not 50-50 as it could be the other way, that is 60 percent rests on the candidates’ credentials and 40 percent on the party.

"Voters and people look at the integrity of the candidate and the party and this is an important aspect that the party must recognise,” he told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview.

Voters, Saifuddin said, also would now see a bigger picture over selecting a party as besides looking at winnable candidates, they also look at the person.

“Out of the 222 candidates for parliamentary seats, they may look at how many of these comprise of the younger generation, women, professionals, corporate figures and how many are those who have experience in the party.

NONE “They look at its composition and combination before deriving their decision,” he said.

Besides the candidates’ credentials, Umno has to look at new ways to govern as the days of the government knowing what is best have ended.

“(Party president) Datuk Seri Najib (Abdul Razak) had said the time where the government knows what is best has ended and that is why he engages in having the people to participate in the decision-making process as part of the transformation efforts,” he said.

“Hence, we see the formation of labs, working papers of having various sectors involved directly or indirectly as part of the Government Transformation Programme of the ministries and agencies. This is an era of good governance where we engage all stakeholders before making a decision,” he said.

‘Umno and the government must innovate’

Thirdly, he said Umno and the government must show that it is able to innovate at the local level.

Saifuddin illustrated what he had done by having a mini parliament in Temerloh, called the Temerloh consultative council, to get feedback from the government, business sector and civil society groups for them to participate in the decision-making process.

NONE “We meet once in six months to get to know the grassroots view in improving the constituency. We have our own NKRA (National Key Results Area) to assess our performance and I put its results on my website,” he said.

Finally, Saifuddin said Umno has to have progressive thinking where for example, the party cannot continue talking about the New

Economic Policy, but carry out affirmative actions to help 40 percent of the citizens at the bottom half of the pyramid by providing them with facilities for them to raise their economy.

“All these new ideas and new approach must come from Umno. A professor has once described Umno as being good at reaction and strategy but it has to improve on its thoughts.

“Politics today is all about thoughts as besides having reacted swiftly and strategising, the people want to see its way of thinking as we are dealing with educated people and professionals who are exposed to all kinds of information. This is the challenge for Umno.”

Saifuddin said if the four things can be seen by the people and the programmes are implemented, then the party has a good chance of winning big.

“If this is implemented, we have a good chance of winning back the two-thirds majority. If not, we may still govern but are not able to get back the two-thirds majority,” he said.

Winning the young minds

To questions on whether Umno has managed to capture the hearts of the younger generation, the supreme council member said there has been a significant increase in registrations for the Youth and Puteri movements.

“Certainly registering a victory cannot depend on its members alone. Certainly, I am worried of the youth’s support for the party as it is not as good as I had hoped for. If we have the general election now, I think Umno has yet to obtain the support from the youth totally,” he said.

“We can get the support, but it would be difficult. If we manage to get a victory, the support from the youth could be small. This is not proper for a party like Umno as we should target that if a general election is called only for the youth, we should target to win it hands down,” he said.

However, Saifuddin noted that the support among the youths is improving compared to 2008 where we lost their support.

“We have to improve two things to get the youth’s support - namely engage with them and improve on the content of our programmes,” he said.

VIDEO l 12.59 mins

 

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