The Malaysian Insight

PRIME Minister Najib Razak is pulling out all the stops to strengthen his foothold in the next general election by garnering the support of pro-Barisan Nasional (BN) social media activists.

In his blog, Najib said BN has long been in “defensive mode” and it’s now “time to attack”.

“We must be quick in our response so we do not get trapped like during the previous general election when the opposition spead false news that we brought in Bangladeshis and even created blackout situations at certain places to manipulate the votes.”

Najib said the opposition only held to one principle which was “if you cannot convince them, confuse them” and it was crucial that BN established three basic principles.

The BN chairman and Umno president also said he was confident the media activists would continue to defend the government and ensure that BN continued ruling Putrajaya.

He outlined three things the “nationalists” must do to ensure another BN victory.

“First, I call on everyone to avoid conflicts among each other. We must be committed to the fight together to uphold the BN government.

“Second, we must spread our virtual network. We have to identify the information and our message to the rakyat and share it among ourselves so that it can reach more people effectively.

“Third, we should learn from what happened in the previous general election,” Najib said in his blog.

Najib met up with several social media activists who are deemed pro-BN during the launch of Jentera Jalinan Rakyat Plus (JR Plus) at Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

JR Plus is a platform to reach out to voters together with Umno and the BN election machinery during GE14.

During the last general election in 2013, BN lost the popular vote for the first time in history, winning only 47.4% of the total votes. The coalition, however, formed the government as it managed to take 133 of the seats in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat. This was seven seats fewer than GE12 in 2008 when it lost two-thirds majority.

“I have faith in these social media activists, that they will play a role in defending the government and strengthen Barisan Nasional’s foothold in Putrajaya,” he said. – April 15, 2017.