Norzamira Che Noh
KLANG: Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has reminded the party's grassroots to be realistic, saying they were not the dominant party they once were.
"DAP has more seats than us, they only have five ministers," he said at the Kota Raja Umno divisional meeting here.
"We, at the grassroots level, must not think we are dominant like before because we have seven ministers.
"This is the new political reality, we must be realistic."
For context, DAP has 40 seats in the Dewan Rakyat compared to Umno's 26.
Zahid also said that Umno's track record in leading the country could no longer inspire the people to vote for them.
He said the party's failure to see the changing demands of voters led to it losing its dominance in Selangor and Penang in the 2008 general election.
"This is the situation we face, for us to look forward, we cannot forget the past.
"Even though Selangor was once our fixed deposit, the situation changed," he said, adding this was why it was important for grassroots to be realistic.
Meanwhile, Zahid, the Barisan Nasional chairman, said he supported a call from Kota Raja Umno division chief, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz for the party to be given the chance to contest a state seat within the area's parliamentary constituency.
Zahid said the understanding between parties in the unity coalition allowed for discussions on such matters.
"We hope our friends in the unity coalition will consider this, surely out of the four seats in Kota Raja, they could give us one.
"There's no issue in asking for one seat, we can discuss it among friends.