“Your KPI is thus nothing less than 22 out of the 25 parliament seats and 48 out of 60 of the state assembly seats,” he said at a dinner with Sabah BN leaders here last night.
Among those present were Chief Minister Musa Aman, and deputy chief ministers Joseph Pairin Kitingan, Yahya Hussin and Raymond Tan.
Najib said he was confident that Sabah BN would do well in the polls as the state coalition, with Musa as its “commander in chief”, was united and focused on success.
The prime minister however warned the ruling coalition members here against being lackadaisical and called on them to work until polling day.
“This election is not an election for us to win, but rather an election for us to lose. That means if something happens, it is because of our weaknesses, because we didn’t do what we were supposed to.
“It’s because we are not as popular as we thought we are or that we are not united,” Najib said, adding that BN members must be aware of any weaknesses.
He said among their tasks was to reach out to “persuadable voters” to convince them to support BN.
“If we depend entirely on our members, this is no guarantee for victory or a comfortable majority,” Najib said, adding that BN must work hard to identify such voters.
He said in the last election, BN had won some parliamentary seats by vote margins of less than 1,000. He added that there were 6,000 or 7,000 new voters in some of these areas, and that BN should know how they were likely to cast their ballots.
“If we know they are going to vote for us, that’s fine but if they tell us they are undecided, we need to reach out to them,” Najib said.
He said BN’s track record in Sabah spoke volumes, and that the ruling coalition had brought about political stability in Sabah and economically transformed the state.
“If there is anything lacking, we will address it. If there are any state rights as provided for in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that were inadvertently taken, we will return them.”
Similarly, he said, local issues were being addressed.
“Dilapidated schools are being refurbished, the Pan Borneo Highway is ongoing and there is renewed focus on rural development projects.”
The prime minister said he had always made it a point to provide additional assistance to the state whenever the need arose.
“Just today, there was an appeal for additional assistance for Kota Belud, Sandakan and Pensiangan, and I have approved them,” he said.
While BN had shown that it was a coalition that looked to the future, with initiatives such as the Transformasi Nasional 2050 programme, the same could not be said for the opposition, he added.
“We are looking 30 years ahead. The question is, can a 93-year-old man be the face of our nation’s future?”
Najib added that BN had been consistent in bringing progress to the country, unlike the opposition.
“The only thing that can be said about the opposition is that they have been consistently inconsistent,” he said.
Sabah BN upbeat as opposition parties scramble to show united front