Rompin and Permatang Pauh by-elections: wake-up call for BN

The results of the Rompin and Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-elections are seen as a 'wake-up call' for the Barisan Nasional (BN).

A political observer said the BN's reduced majority votes in the Rompin parliamentary by-election and its failure to wrest Permatang Pauh, needed a more efficient approach for BN to win the hearts of the people.

Universiti Sains Communications Studies Faculty senior lecturer Associate Prof Mohamad Md Yusoff said the leadership must cooperate and work harder to get the people's support.

"We see a drastic decline in votes in Rompin with the majority obtained that is not convincing enough and that BN is in a comfort zone.

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PKR retains Permatang Pauh seat

"In the by-elections, BN may not have expected to be defeated badly even though there is a leadership change. But this is a wake up call," he said during the "Ruang Bicara' programme aired in BernamaTV here last night.

The programme titled 'YB Pilihan' (Choice of YB) was hosted by Dahlan Maamor.

Parti Gerakan Rakyat deputy speaker Syed Razak Alsagoff was also a guest in the programme to discuss elected representatives who became the people's choice in a particular area.

In the just-concluded Rompin by-election, BN was defeated in five out of 38 polling district centres besides several ballot box channels in Felda Keratong 2, 4 and 5 land scheme.

Even though the victory of BN candidate Datuk Hasan Arifin in the Rompin by-election was expected, the majority votes were reduced almost double fold, which significantly missed the target of the BN leadership.

In the Permatang Pauh by-election, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail retained the seat with a 8,841- vote majority.

Mohamad was of the view that BN needed to study digital marketing through the social media more effectively and drastically as well as pay attention to the needs and aspirations of the young generation.

"We need to see how we can utilise digital media to empower politics whereby our role can enable our young people to genuinely understand.

"This is call political 'jihad'... not only economical 'jihad', political 'jihad' is also important," he said.

Meanwhile Syed Razak said many issues still needed to be explained and settled so that BN could become better in future.

He said the government should be fast in addressing issues and perceptions that were being distorted by certain quarters.