Onn Hafiz says BN’s power-sharing requires sacrifice and loyalty, with UMNO supporting MIC’s Tenggaroh seat for over 40 years.
MERSING: The principle of power sharing, which forms the foundation of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) struggle, requires sacrifice and steadfast loyalty from every component party to preserve political stability and strengthen cooperation within the coalition.
Johor BN chairman Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said this spirit has long been demonstrated by the maturity and discipline of the UMNO machinery, which has consistently supported its component party candidate from MIC for the Tenggaroh seat for more than four decades.
The Johor Menteri Besar said Tenggaroh UMNO had continuously shown loyalty despite repeated unsuccessful attempts to contest the seat, choosing instead to remain committed to the coalition and its shared objectives.
“For 40 years, UMNO had sought this (Tenggaroh) seat and every election, failed to get it. However, UMNO never sulked and continued fighting for BN. Tenggaroh remained loyal to the struggle and never fell,” he said during the Mersing BN Machinery Meeting at Taman Lautan Biru today.
Also present were BN candidate for Tenggaroh, Mohd Youzaimi Yusof, and BN candidate for Endau, Alwiyah Talib.
Onn Hafiz said decisions on seat distribution were made carefully to balance the interests of all component parties while strengthening solidarity among UMNO, MCA and MIC.
Commenting on Tenggaroh’s voter composition, he noted that the constituency has about 500 Indian voters out of more than 39,000 registered voters, but stressed that this had never prevented BN from upholding its multi-racial cooperation model.
At the same time, he challenged the election machinery to demonstrate the effectiveness of BN’s power-sharing formula by increasing the coalition’s winning majority in the upcoming state election.
“Previously, we won with a majority of 1,356 votes, this time, our target for Zaimi (Mohd Youzaimi Yusof) is not just victory, but a majority of 3,000 votes,” he said.
It will be a three-cornered contest for the Tenggaroh seat, involving Mohd Youzaimi (BN–UMNO), Muhamad Amerul Muhamad (PN–Bersatu) and Md Yusof Dawam (PH–PKR).
The Johor state election will be held on July 11, with early voting scheduled for July 7.
For the latest news on the 16th Johor state election, visit https://prn.bernama.com/johor/.
