DAP using psy-war ahead of GE14, says Bashah
BALING: DAP’s strategy in claiming that the opposition pact will form the government is part of psychological warfare ahead of the 14th General Election (GE14).
Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah said DAP used the same tactic in the last two elections, but failed, and with GE14 looming, it was using the strategy again to convince voters to support Pakatan Harapan.
Bashah, who is also the state BN chairman, said this was another strategy from DAP and Pakatan Harapan by claiming they could defeat the ruling BN coalition.
“They used the same strategy in the past two elections. I’m confident voters are wise enough to see the opposition’s tactic and stick to BN, which has a proven track record in the past 13 elections.”
He said this after leading Alor Star Umno division’s assessment of Baling BN’s machinery preparation here.
He said voters should learn from previous elections, where they were misled to vote for the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat by believing it could win.
Bashah was commenting on the statement by DAP national political education director Liew Chin Tong that Pakatan Harapan had a good chance of forming the government by wresting 40 BN-held parliamentary seats to secure 100 seats in the peninsula.
Liew’s analysis was published by a portal.
He said the 40 seats, of which at least 10 were in Kedah and Perlis, were in Malay-majority semi-urban areas with a sizable number of non-Malay voters.
Bashah, who is also Alor Star Umno division chief, said Kedah BN and Umno would intensify preparations for GE14 as the challenges would be different than in previous polls.
“This assessment programme is to ensure Umno divisions in the state are prepared to face GE14. This is done by having one division visit and assess another division’s election machinery.
“For example, today (yesterday), the Alor Star division assessed the preparation by the Baling BN machinery and its 78 polling centres. The Langkawi division will assess the Alor Star division.”
He said the assessment of all 15 Umno divisions in the state would be completed this month so that the state BN machinery was prepared to face GE14 by next month.