Najib tells Umno Youth to be more aggressive in reaching new voters

PEKAN: The Youth machinery of Barisan Nasional or Umno throughout the country should be more aggressive and more hardworking in ensuring a massive victory for the party in the coming 14th General Election, according to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
Najib, who is also BN chairman, said the number of young and new voters nationwide had increased, including in Pekan, which needed the party wing to move into their respective areas to garner and strengthen support.
"In Pekan parliamentary constituency, there are 23,000 young voters aged between 20 to 40 years including first time voters. So Umno and BN Youth machinery should reach out and understand them.
"Must look after them face-to-face, must take care of Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, must know them by going house to house, visit them, shake their hands, whether they are in pain or happy the BN machinery must forward to help.
"We do not want our army to be sloppy, indisciplined, negligent and sluggish. We need youths willing to work hard day and night right to midnight," he said when opening the Pekan Parliamentary Constituency BN Youth Machinery Retreat in a National Service Training Programme Camp (PLKN) in Tg Selangor, here today.
Also present were Pekan Umno Youth chief Datuk Shahruddin Ahmad and 1,200 Pekan BN Youth members participating in the two-day retreat programme since yesterday.
Najib, who is also Pekan MP, said BN should always be sensitive to the needs of youths compared to an opposition party which cheated its young supporters on setting a special wing for them when it was not provided in the party constitution.
"Our government led by Umno and BN is also the government for young people. If not who will they depend on? The opposition? They are split all over and they deceived by saying Armada is in the constitution when there is none.
"Over there, the youths are angry. They want to follow Umno's constitution but were incompetent in implementation. In the end, the members are confused," he said.
Armada which is supposed to be the youth wing of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) was facing serious internal rifts recently when it was found to be not stated in the party's constitution.
The matter was one of the three mistakes made by PPBM, leading the party to face possible deregistration by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
Meanwhile, Najib also expressed his satisfaction with the spirit displayed by Pekan BN and hoped the spirit to fight would continue to glow until the next general election. — Bernama