'Time for BN to hold annual convention'

It is time that an annual all-party Barisan Nasional convention is held at national and state levels to enable coalition partners to air and resolve grouses amicably.

Penang MIC Youth leader M Suresh, making this suggestion, said giving BN partners an internal avenue to deliberate on issues could prevent dirty linen being washed in public, as often happens now.

He said BN leaders from all levels should be allowed to attend the convention to thrash out prevalent problems, exchange opinions, and make correct decisions on pressing issues especially on political governance.

The absence of appropriate internal channels, Suresh said, has led BN leaders and members to use sources like the media to criticise the coalition as well as government policies dominated by Umno.

This gives a negative impression of political ties among the parties and that the coalition is ridden with strife, he noted.

Holding a convention could put a stop to this, Suresh told a press conference last night before chairing the wing’s committee meeting in Permatang Pauh, Penang.

He conceded that differences have arisen over communal issues, government welfare programmes and the channeling of funds to the people.

Despite decades of claims by top BN leaders that they practise consensus - not confrontational - politics, undercurrents have always run through the coalition which comprises Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP, among others.

Open criticism now the norm

Muted grouses that have centered on Umno’s dominance and hegemony over the BN have surfaced since the coalition’s unprecedented reverses in the March general election.

Since then, non-Umno BN leaders have openly clashed with Umno leaders over racism, the Malay supremacy claim, double standards, Internal Security Act and poor governance.

On Monday, Umno Youth chief hopeful Mukhriz Mahathir (left) made comments on vernacular schools that led to a fresh outburst, although incumbent head Hishammuddin Hussein (right) came to his rescue yesterday with a claim that the former had been misquoted.

Suresh, however, strongly condemned Mukhriz as being short-sighted and irresponsible in having implied that the system of vernacular schools has led to racial polarisation

"Penang MIC Youth will never compromise with anyone who calls for abolition of vernacular schools," he said, cautioning Mukhriz not to politicise vernacular education to gain political mileage.

"He should have instead called for development programmes and funds to upgrade vernacular schools.”