KUCHING: All leaders and members of Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties need to uphold the “1BN” principle if they want to win all the 31 parliamentary seats to be contested in the coming 13th general election.
Sarawak BN secretary-general Datuk Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said they should learn from past experience including the loss of a few seats to the opposition in the state elections last year due to the lack of the 1BN spirit and some internal factors within the component parties.
“To me, the opposition is not strong in Sarawak but we had our internal problems and we were too confident due to our previous success,” he said in his address to BN Youth members who will be organising a convoy to fly the Jalur Gemilang next month.
Rundi, who is also Public Utilities Assistant Minister, said BN had the edge in giving confidence to the people, particularly the fence-sitters, based on the performance of the opposition in states they ruled or seats under them.
He said if BN component party members could move as a team and take the “touch one, touch all” approach, then the issue of outside parties claiming to be BN-friendly would not arise.
Of the 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak, only two seats, Bandar Kuching and Sibu, are held by the opposition.
In the last general election, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) was allocated 14 seats, Parti Rakyat Bersatu Sarawak (SUPP) seven, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) six and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) four.