Barisan Nasional recognises that there are lessons to be learned from its dismal performance in last Saturday’s general election and this will be reflected in government’s future policies, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“We must learn from this. I have always believed there are lessons to learn. Even in the worst of tragedies, there are lessons to be learned.
“I’m not a stubborn person who will not learn from lessons in life, even when these are associated with my career and my work,” he told a press conference after back-to-back Umno supreme council and BN supreme council meetings today.
“We are all collectively responsible for all that we have been doing because the government has been making decisions on the basis of consensus,” he added, apparently in response to calls for him to personally take responsibility for the ruling coalition’s disastrous performance.
In Saturday’s election, BN won only 140 of the 222 parliamentary seats. The opposition, led by PKR, won the remaining 82 with the Anwar Ibrahim-led party taking 31, DAP 28 and PAS 23.
The BN coalition’s vote share in Peninsular Malaysia also suffered a blow when it won only 48.7 percent of the popular vote. In 2004, BN rode the wave with a 64 percent popular vote nationwide. |
