Iylia Marsya Iskandar, Amalia Azmi
KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional (PN) must find ways to win the support of non-Malay voters, says its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
In his closing speech at the PN MPs and assemblyman convention, Muhyiddin said the party needed to take a new approach to win over non-Malay voters, which might increase votes by 5 to 10 per cent if successful.
"We (the convention) touched on the percentage of voters in the country who supported us. There is another part especially among non-Malay voters (that do not support us) so we have to find a way to attract support from the Chinese, Indians and others.
"Support from the Malays can be said to be very good and still strong. I discussed with Dominic Lau on the approaches, models and strategies to attract non-Malay votes towards PN , especially the Chinese.
"This also includes the issues that they are concerned about, their understanding of Perikatan Nasional and the struggle of its component parties," he said.
He added that PN could secure the win in the next General Elections should they be successful in their strategies and increase the votes about 5 to 10 per cent.
"With this (the 5 to 10 per cent increase in support) I believe in the 16th general election (GE16), we would secure nearly all the mixed seats that we previously had less support.
"And this will further strengthen our position in GE16," he said.
At a press conference later, Muhyiddin assured that PN was an inclusive party.
"If we can convert that into action and convince non-Malays that we are not a 'Malay' party, but rather a party with 'Malaysia' at its core, a Malay majority, and a commitment to all races and religions, we will gain support.
"We need to do more so that message will be delivered across all races," he said.
This was one of the 20 resolutions of the convention.
The resolution is aimed to empower Malaysia's pluralistic society by being fair and caring to all people regardless of race, religion and class, including Malays, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, Kadazan, Dusun, Iban, Murut, Orang Asal, elderly, women, youth, children and people with disabilities.