Johari: BN must learn from past mistakes to wrest back KL

INTERVIEW | A dozen parliamentary seats in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur have been a fortress impenetrable by BN since the 12th general election in 2008.

The only way in, said Umno Federal Territory chief Johari Abdul Ghani, is for BN to learn from its mistakes.

“We must learn from our mistakes. That is why when we choose our candidates to contest in the Federal Territory, they must have the attitude of wanting to serve the people,” Johari said in an interview with Malaysiakini.

“If we choose the wrong candidates at the Parliament level, we can’t get good national level leaders,” said the former finance minister II.

Commenting further on his coalition’s mistakes, Johari, who is making a comeback in Titiwangsa, said the coalition previously disregarded criticisms or views of the people.

“For example, we took criticisms for granted, their dissatisfaction, because we felt we have been in power for 61 years and we have done a lot of what we felt was good for the people.

“But the needs of the people change with time, with every generation.

“If we look at the trend, people want different types of candidates - from simple kampung folk all the way to urbanites. Urbanites are looking for those who are better educated,” he said.

As far as urban seats go, Titiwangsa is probably the most urban of them all, located right in the middle of the capital city.

In 2018, 72 percent of the voters there were Malay, 17 percent Chinese, nine percent Indian, and two percent of other ethnicities.

A sizable chunk of the constituency is made up of Kampung Baru, a Malay network of villages in the middle of a concrete jungle.

Johari, who is also an Umno supreme council member, said BN needs to focus on issues which directly affect the people on the ground.

He said this is not limited to welfare but also issues like transparency, check and balance, the environment, and education.

“Before this, the rakyat doesn’t pay too much attention. They will take whatever we give, but this is no longer the case. BN needs to engage on this,” he said.

Harapan only knows to criticise

BN lost the federal government for the first time in 61 years in the last general election.

The new Harapan government was toppled soon after a group of Bersatu and PKR MPs, led by Bersatu’s Muhyiddin Yassin and then PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, left Harapan.

Muhyiddin took over as prime minister, leading a new coalition government known as Perikatan Nasional, but he resigned after 17 months amid pressure from BN’s Umno, which threatened to withdraw support if elections are not called.

He was replaced with BN’s Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who retained much of Muhyiddin’s cabinet.

Johari, who was finance minister II during Najib Abdul Razak’s administration, said this tumult in politics has led to fatigue and a subdued mood among the electorate during this campaign period.

“They (Malaysians) defeated BN by voting for Harapan, but Harapan disappointed them.

“It’s no longer like before when they really wanted to topple BN in hopes that Harapan would do something exceptional, but Harapan did not because they did not have any experience governing a country.

“They are good at criticising but they are not good at coming up with solutions,” he said.

Khalid not a challenge

The political tsunami of 2018 washed out Johari in Titiwangsa, where he lost to Bersatu’s Rina Harun.

This time, he is hoping to return to Parliament by winning against fellow contenders Harapan “heavyweight” Khalid Abdul Samad, Pejuang’s FT chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan, and PAS working committee member Dr Rosni Adam who is contesting for PN.

For Johari, he finds three-term incumbent Shah Alam MP Khalid not a challenge.

Johari, a corporate figure and Kuala Lumpur native, won the Titiwangsa seat in 2013 and continued serving the constituency through his service centre there, despite his defeat in 2018.

“I never felt like going against him is a challenge because I know my own strengths, in terms of taking care of and servicing the Titiwangsa constituents,” the Kuala Lumpur native said.

He added that he put himself forward to recontest this time because he felt Rina was not fulfilling her obligations to the electorate, be it when she was with the Harapan or PN government.

Rina was the rural development minister under Harapan and the women, family, and community development minister under PN.

“Harapan didn’t do anything (when it held Titiwangsa) even when they had an elected representative here and who was also a minister - they were not working.

“And now after a term, five years, (Rina) ran to another constituency to contest and here comes another Harapan candidate, Khalid Samad.

“I don’t know why he wants to come here to contest, but this is democracy and I’m willing to face anyone,” he said.

In 2013, Johari won Titiwangsa with a majority of 23,034 votes against PAS’ Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzami.

In 2018, he lost to Rina, who won with a majority of 4,139 votes in a three-cornered fight between Johari (19,701 votes) and PAS’ Mohamad Noor Mohamad (6,875 votes).

Rina is now contesting in Sepang on the PN ticket.

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