BN campaign ‘ template’
> Party to adopt same strategy used in Sarawak polls, says Zahid
PUTRAJAYA: Barisan Nasional (BN) will be adopting the same election campaign “template” that it adopted during the 2016 Sarawak general election, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Sarawak BN had in their possession a very neat template for their election campaign. We will use part of that template which brought a huge victory for them and integrate it to BN’s organisational structure throughout the country,” he said after hosting the Kuching Division Journalist Association and the Putrajaya Media Club yesterday.
Despite the apparent loss of ground to the Opposition in the 12th and 13th general elections, Ahmad Zahid remains confident that BN will continue to win the majority number of seats in the upcoming polls.
“If we work hard and smart, nothing is impossible to achieve. GE13 saw us win 134 seats, just 14 short of two-thirds majority.
“The mistakes made during the last elections will not be repeated.
“They (Opposition) will attempt to deny the current government two-thirds majority. I will prove them wrong,” he said.
He expressed hope that reporters will continue to practise ethical reporting in light of more non-traditional means of news coverage prevalent these days.
“The media has to play an important role in disseminating the truth instead of (what later turns out) to be fake news.
“We are facing a tough challenge these days as 82% of non-traditional media are against the establishment. Some of the media are even volunteering and putting in efforts to promote fake news based on their own things.
“We fear that this will happen during the last minute of the election campaign to discredit the government,” he added.
At an earlier event, Ahmad Zahid criticised the Opposition for saying that laws being drafted to curb the spread of fake news was an attempt to suppress the truth from the people.
Citing news stories that were later revealed to be fake during GE13, he questioned if it would be right for a similar situation to repeat itself in the next polls.
“What is the (present) truth and what was the truth before GE13?
“Is ‘40,000 Bangladeshi nationals brought to Malaysia’ not fake news?
“Is that the truth we want to portray again?” he said after officiating at the Home Ministry’s monthly assembly meeting. He said fake news would be expected from the Opposition as a lastminute campaign strategy and denied the law was meant to hide information.