Abdul Mua’ti @ Zamri Ahmad, a professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia, said BN lost Selangor in 2008 due to many factors, including an increase in living costs and oil prices, as well as clashes between bigwigs like former prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said Pakatan Harapan (PH) then came up with 12 forms of assistance for the people, winning over the state.
“If BN wants to win the state back this time around, it needs to do more than what PH offered the people then,” Mua’ti said at a forum titled “Analysis of Selangor Politics and Government Administration” at the Selangor BN convention today.
He said this was even more important for a general election in the post-pandemic era when the people were struggling in the midst of a global economic downturn.
Sia Bik Kai, a senior lecturer at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, said Chinese voters in Selangor wanted a state government that could manage well the flood and water supply issues.
“Until now, PH has been unable to solve these issues. Unless BN can come up with solutions, it will be hard to attract Chinese voters.”
He said BN must also cater to the needs of the older Chinese voters, 70-80% of whom were still active within their communities and were more likely to come out to vote in GE15.
Sia said the Chinese community could be split into two groups — those who were completely turned off by PH and likely to swing their support to BN, and those who remained pro-PH but were fazed by the coalition’s performance and probably won’t come out to vote at all.
He said to win over the Chinese voters, Selangor BN needed to fix the inflation and economy-related issues, like unemployment and wage inequality.
“In its campaign, BN should not tell voters that Malaysia will become like Sri Lanka if they don’t vote for them.
“Instead, tell voters that BN is a ‘reliable brand’ that can be depended on to fix all the problems and chaos created by PH,” said Sia.
Sivamurugan Pandian, of Universiti Sains Malaysia, said BN needed to introduce an alternative to the First Selangor Plan (RS-1), introduced by PH recently to give the people a viable option.
The five-year plan, aimed at making the state contribute 30% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, involves welfare programmes, sustainable development as well as a capable, transparent and efficient government delivery system.
Sivamurugan also said BN must examine its relationship with NGOs to ensure a high level of trust, adding that NGOs represented an important “third voice” to the people.
Sivamurugan said BN must also put forth more female candidates to reflect the makeup of the Selangor people — which is now about 52% women.
Answering a question on whether youths were interested in politics, Sivamurugan said they were, but wanted to see new policies that catered to their wants and needs, not just endless politicking.
“There needs to be drastic changes from within the party. The party cannot just be saying outwardly that it wants change but yet still remain tied to conventional, traditional politics within,” he said.