The Malaysian Insight

SELANGOR Barisan Nasional must counter the perception created by the Opposition on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to win back the state, said Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

He said the 1MDB issue had been solved, and Umno now must fix the wrong perception that the Opposition had created.

“The 1MDB issue has been solved. The bad perception was created (by the opposition) to confuse the voters. So, Umno has to step in to clear the confusion,” he said after opening the Petaling Jaya Utara Umno division meeting in Ara Damansara this morning.

Tengku Adnan urged all component parties in Selangor BN to cooperate with each other so that the coalition could wrest the state from the opposition.

He said BN should learn from its mistakes when it lost Selangor to the opposition in the last two general elections.

“We lost in the past because we had problems with everyone. We had problems with Indians because of the demolishing of temples in the state, we had problems with the Chinese and even Malays. We had problems with state civil servants by giving them a broom as an ‘award’ for poor service,” he said, referring to the controversial 2007 practise of then Umno menteri besar Dr Khir Toyo of awarding brooms to the Hulu Selangor District Council and Hulu Selangor Land Office for failure to collect property assessment rates..

In the 2008 general election, BN lost Selangor to the opposition, in a stunning win that has been since touted as a political tsunami.

Tengku Adnan said Selangor voters were lucky as BN was still ithe ruling party in the federal government, and was doing its best to safeguard the interests of the people in the state.

“Imagine what will happen if we did not rule. Probably this ballroom will be empty,” he said referring to the room that was packed with Umno members today. – August 13, 2017.