Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
PHUKET: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the proposal to turn Barisan Nasional (BN) into a single party is rational and needs to be studied in detail to ensure continuous support from the people in future.
He said the major and significant proposal to ensure that the BN remained relevant must be considered immediately by every component party and given a response as soon as possible if the results of the recent GE were to be taken into account.
“After taking into consideration what had transpired in the last general election, BN leaders had posed the question whether the BN should be reviewed because the collaboration that existed currently was based on the merger of the 13 parties which had become components of the BN with each party having its own constitution and were merely merging based on the BN name.
“There were those who felt that now was probably the time for the merger to be formed in a more concrete manner, that is, the BN as a political party and no longer a merger of various political parties,” he said when commenting on the proposal by Gerakan that called for the BN to be in the form of a single party as stated by its acting president Datuk Chang Ko Youn, two days ago.
Speaking to reporters during his visit here, Muhyiddin said there was basis in the suggestion but it called for every component party to undertake an in-depth study by obtaining feedback and views from the respective party members because it involved the structure of its formation and organisation.
He said although the suggestion might receive objections, it was important that all party members looked ahead and if they felt that it should be implemented, an implementation mechanism that could be accepted by all members of the BN component parties must be submitted immediately.
“This is more than a matter of self-evaluation, we must look at the existing BN structure to see whether the time has come for the formation of a party to be named the BN, and no longer in the form of a merger of BN component parties but the BN as a single political party,” he said.