Dr M: We’ll hold post-mortem on Kimanis defeat

ALOR SETAR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad attributed Pakatan Harapan’s loss to the new administration’s policies needing time to reach people, promising a post-mortem.

The Prime Minister said everything that was implemented by the Federal Government needed time for the people to benefit from it.

“For example, the new agriculture policies cannot be achieved in one day, ” he told reporters at a Program Mesra Rakyat dinner in Taman Bersatu in Kuala Kedah on Saturday.

Dr Mahathir said he was confident the people of Sabah would realise gradually that they would benefit from a good administration, led by Parti Warisan Sabah.

The Pakatan chairman also said the defeat in the Kimanis by-election also showed that the government machinery did not know how to communicate with the people.

“Maybe we don’t know how to disseminate information to people, such as telling them what we have done, like our smooth shift from the previous government, ” he said.

Dr Mahathir said a post-mortem would be conducted to analyse the factors for the defeat and why Sabahans were frustrated with the current government.

“We must be close to the people, get to know what they want and try to solve their problems, ” he said.

During the Saturday by-election, Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Mohamad Alamin took Kimanis with a majority of 2,029 votes against Parti Warisan Sabah’s Datuk Karim Bujang.

In Melaka, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said the post-mortem was crucial to understand issues of support by youth.

The Youth and Sport Minister also said Pakatan would find effective strategies to regain support.

“It is crucial to have the post-mortem to know issues and what we need to do together, ” he said.

In Ipoh, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the loss was a signal for coalition parties to strengthen their ties in Pakatan.

Ahmad Faizal said Pakatan should studying issues that required improvements to regain support.

“Issues close to bumiputras, especially in Kimanis, must be taken seriously, ” he said yesterday.