Taib : Single-party BN a tough sell
Taib : Single-party BN a tough sell
NST Online
KUCHING : The proposal to turn Barisan Nasional into a single multi-racial party is not an easy matter and ought to be studied very carefully, Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said yesterday.
The people were not ready for this kind of integration, he said after the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) supreme council meeting in Petra Jaya.
Taib said it was difficult to sell the ideal of a single multiracial party to the people because they were not integrated.
“If the people are more integrated, then the parties can move in that direction. As a whole, we are not yet ready.”
But the chief minister said the BN coalition in the state might be a few steps closer to realising the single party concept because “we in Sarawak are a bit more advanced” than those in the peninsula.
“BN parties here are more coordinated and the racial integration more pronounced. The people here are much closer and I have been behaving like a BN chairman more than as the president of my party.”
The parties that make up the state BN coalition are PBB, the predominantly Chinese Sarawak United Peoples’ Party, and the multiracial Parti Rakyat Sarawak and Sarawak Peoples’ Democratic Party.
In Kuala Lumpur, MCA vice-president aspirant Datuk Yap Pian Hon cautioned Barisan Nasional leaders to think carefully before proceeding with the proposal to allow direct membership.
The veteran politician said in the 1960s and early 1970s, the Alliance allowed direct membership through its Alliance Direct Membership Organisation (Admo).
“At that time, there were people who supported the Alliance, but did not like the component parties of Umno, MCA and MIC. So, Admo was created.”
However, when the Alliance was replaced by BN in 1973, Admo was scrapped because it was a small and ineffective grouping.
“We must learn from history and think carefully before proceeding,” said Yap.
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Tags: Abdul Taib Mahmud, Admo, Aspirant, Barisan Nasional, Bumiputera, Chief Minister, Membership Organisation, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, Parti Rakyat Sarawak, Pbb, Pesaka, Petra Jaya, Racial Integration, Sarawak Peoples, Single Party, Supreme Council, Tough Sell, Umno, Veteran Politician, Yap Pian Hon