KUALA LUMPUR: The Unity Government values openness, tolerance, and good relations among its component parties, especially between the two main coalitions, Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
UMNO vice-president Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani (pix), who is also the Minister of Agriculture and Commodities, said all coalition parties always discuss matters comprehensively before making any decision, even though the ties established under Unity Government are still relatively new.
At the same time, Johari said that each party within the Unity Government should avoid raising issues related to race and religion that may touch on the public’s sensitivities.
“Some parties sometimes overlook the sensitivities of the public; we need to manage that; we need more tolerance in terms of issues involving the people.
“However, there are no issues within the Unity Government…we just need to constantly interact with each other and ensure that sensitive issues are avoided,” he told Bernama.
Asked about efforts to regain Malay support for UMNO, Johari said that the party leadership needs to reorganise itself to regain the trust of the Malays in the party.
“In reality, when I look at (the number of Parliament seats held by) UMNO, we started with 104, then 88, then 56, and now we have 26 left, but we have 23,000 branches, and not a single one is closed, 191 divisions and not a single one is closed.
“So, we need to organise ourselves because the even though general election comes once every five years, voters will continue to assess us. If we do not do anything for them, they will use their power to vote for other parties,” he added. -Bernama
