Have faith in the Barisan spirit, Najib tells party members

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Umno needs to strengthen its team work with other Barisan Nasional parties because it cannot win elections on its own.

Rallying party members to keep their faith in the Barisan spirit, the Umno president said strong working relations is important especially in urban constituencies like the Federal Territories.

At the same time, Najib reminded Umno members to close ranks and boost the spirit of camaraderie from within so that the party remains solid and unshakable.

“We need to have a good working relationship with our partners in Barisan because we cannot win (elections) alone,” he said when opening Federal Territories Umno Convention yesterday.

Najib, who is also Barisan chairman reiterated this point amidst calls by certain quarters in Umno who want the party to focus more on consolidating Malay voters support instead of trying to regain the confidence of the non-Malays.

The 13th general election saw Umno increasing its tally of parliament seats from 79 to 88.
On the other hand, a number of Barisan component parties fared worse than previous elections.

His call was echoed by FT Umno chief Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who heads the party liaison committee in the ethnically diverse territory of Kuala Lumpur.

In his speech earlier, Tengku Adnan reminded party members that when it comes to campaigning for the next general election, they must give their full support to any Barisan candidate.

“Our agenda to strengthen Umno is in line with our desire to strengthen Barisan,” he said.