Hisham: Still a long way to go for BN

Former Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein believes that Barisan Nasional (BN) still needs to address its problems despite the success seen in the Tanjung Piai by-election.

"This is a good start, but we still have a long way to go. BN is not perfect.

"We need to look deep into ourselves, but this has given us a fresh injection of spirit to continue.

"At the end of the day we also need to perform as an effective opposition. Now we have one extra voice to do that," said Hishammuddin, who is the Sembrong MP, when met at the Parliament lobby today.

Asked if the Tanjung Piai by-election was a referendum against Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership, Hishammuddin refused to weigh in on this.

He also did not provide a direct response to a question on whether he thought BN could sustain the Chinese vote swing.

"(What's important now is) we have to deliver and that's all there is to it. Work starts now," he said.

Also in the lobby, Umno supreme council member Nazri Abdul Aziz told reporters that the Chinese vote swing can be sustained if Pakatan Harapan does not fulfil its promises.

"A key issue is Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. The reduced (funding) from RM5 million to RM1 million - is that fair?

"That's the main reason why the Chinese don't support them," Nazri said.

On Saturday, Harapan suffered its worst by-election defeat ever in Tanjung Piai, securing only 26.4 percent of the votes cast.

This is the worst result in the history of parliamentary by-elections for an incumbent federal government.

According to Malaysiakini's analysis, there was a huge swing in Chinese votes away from Harapan and a marginal swing by Malay voters.