It is time for Barisan Nasional to dissolve, now that its Sarawak component parties have exited the coalition, said Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The Padang Rengas MP told The Sun that Barisan was “as good as gone” and said bold changes were needed.
“It might be a good thing to dissolve BN now and have Umno go it alone in peninsular Malaysia,” Nazri said.
He said there is no coming back for Barisan, especially after MCA, MIC and Gerakan were annihilated on May 9.
“Parties like MIC, MCA and Gerakan have been defeated so badly and it would be impossible for them to rise again in such a short time.
“If they can’t rise again, then how is BN supposed to function? We need to accept the fact that BN is gone.
Nazri said this in response to Gerakan Youth chief Andy Yong, who said yesterday that BN component parties should hold a supreme council meeting to decide on whether to expel Umno instead of leaving the coalition.
The Padang Rengas MP said he doesn’t care if other parties would vote out Umno.
“I don’t know. Whatever they want to do, let them do it.”
Nazri said BN leaders needed to accept the fact that the coalition was no longer marketable.
“BN is no longer strong like it used to be, and in times like this, we must bravely make changes or take drastic steps, similar to what the late former premier Tun Abdul Razak Hussein did after the 1969 general election,” Nazri said.
He said that when the Alliance Party lost the popular vote, Abdul Razak was spurred into action and formed Barisan by joining forces with Gerakan and the People’s Progressive Party.
On Tuesday (June 12), Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) announced that they were pulling out from the former ruling coalition to form a new state-based pact.
The BN entered the 14th general election on May 9 with 13 component parties but is now left with only four parties, which are Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan.
Following the exodus of the major parties in the two Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, the BN, which won 79 parliamentary seats in May 9 election, has been further stripped down to 57 seats.
Umno has 54 seats while MIC won two seats and the remaining one seat was won by MCA. Gerakan did not win a single seat.
Yesterday, MCA Kluang division chief Gan Ping Sieu said MCA is also mulling leaving BN.