PEKAN: The Barisan Nasional will always be a marketable "political brand" provided its members do what is right for the people.

BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak said this yesterday as he outlined the coalition's priorities following its worst ever performance in the general election.

They are fine tuning its policies, projects and programmes and inculcating good behaviour, particularly among its leaders.

"We can win the hearts and minds of the people if we know how to manage ourselves," he said at the BN Pekan election victory celebrations here.

Najib also stressed the need for BN to be fair and serve everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or social background.
He said it was obvious from the results of the general election that the "swing of the political pendulum" in the country has become less predictable.

"If we become forgetful, lazy, arrogant and boastful, the people will punish us at the polls.

"We should instead be humble, work hard and serve the people with sincerity."

In the general election, BN lost its two-third majority in parliament, control of five states and recorded smaller majorities in almost all the constituencies it won.

Najib, nonetheless, took comfort in his huge win in Pekan.

"I am glad that we managed to achieve this."

Najib's victory in Pekan, with a majority of 26,464 votes was the biggest for a BN candidate.

He said the win was due to lessons learnt from the previous general elections.

"We learnt a lot from the 1999 general election and worked hard to improve our strategy."

Najib won by 241 votes in 1999, but bounced back to win in the 2004 general election with a majority of 22,922 votes.

About 10,000 people attended the victory celebrations held at Dataran Pekan.

Earlier in Bera, Najib said Pakatan Rakyat's claim that it could and would set up a new government was part of a political game to lure BN MPs to join the opposition.

Najib said the opposition made the claim to exploit BN MPs who felt that they were sidelined by the government.