Former home minister Syed Hamid Albar has urged Putrajaya to respond to the key issues raised by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

In a post on his Facebook page, Syed Hamid said that the key issues raised by Mahathir have yet to be addressed, alluding to Najib's pre-recorded interview with TV3 recently.

He expanded on this in his blog yesterday, stating that Umno leaders have been vague in defending Najib against the Mahathir's allegations, which he described as the "greatest challenge".

"Mahathir has broad support amongst party members as well as the electorate. Under the (current) circumstances, the opposition need not do much.

"(They can just) recycle the bullets produced by Mahathir to shoot Umno or BN with devastating effects to the government and the party," wrote Syed Hamid in a blog post titled 'Current political environment'.

Syed Hamid, who was in the cabinet from 1999 to 2009, said Umno members have been instructed to go on "attack mode" against the opposition, but are hamstrung by Mahathir's attacks against Najib.

"What is clear us the party is badly damaged... The spat between Mahathir and Najib is definitely bad for Umno and BN in the immediate and long term, unless something happens to change the landscape," he wrote.

BN's problems are 'tremendous'

Syed Hamid said the problems faced by BN was "tremendous".

Internally, he added, there was no unified strategy and loyalty to the party.

"Many people feel they (party leaders) have not changed politically in term of attitudes and approaches," he said.

He said the party and the government's crisis management abilities were poor, inconsistent and even insensitive to public sentiments, adding that reactions were also often too slow.

"Worst still party and government leaders are not seen as effective communicators in the explanations of their own policies.

"There is a strong belief that they rely too heavily on the so called experts who don't seem to understand politics or the domestic political undercurrent," he said.

He cited the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) as an example.

"GST created so much uproar, dissatisfaction and unhappiness within the party members and the public even though the tax is a good tax.

"On the ground the public complain on the rise of the cost of living and shops and traders increased the price of goods and services. This gives unnecessary advantage to the opposition," he said.

Opposition does more homework

Syed Hamid said he believed that Malaysia had never gone through such a period of political turmoil and uncertainty before and that opposition parties are stronger now compared to 2008 and 2013.

"On top of that the opposition is perceived to be more articulate. The subjects they raised are well researched than those brought up by the government backbenchers.

"Whether the opposition is good or not, responsible or otherwise it does not matter. What matters most is the perception that they are performing better in Parliament and outside as well as at campaign rallies and trails.

"They are also seen ahead of the BN in optimising the use of social media or the cyberspace for spreading their political ideology and propaganda," he said.

Syed Hamid said this trend can be reversed if BN and Umno were to work "very hard" from now on and consolidate their strategies.

To do so would require party leaders to listen to the grassroots and take "radical" action to rectify the party's weaknesses and even revamp the cabinet, he added.