Datuk Seri Najib Razak wants a team that can contribute to his transformation policies

OBVIOUSLY the loss of its two-thirds parliamentary majority meant that more than 75 seats in the last Parliament were not held by Barisan Nasional (BN). Simple arithmetic, therefore, would dictate that 33 per cent of the BN candidates for the coming general election should be new faces because those who lost in 2008 cannot be offered again. The overriding fact is that Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the BN chairman, wants a team that can contribute effectively to his transformation policies and take the country out of the middle-income economic trap. And, in trying to restore the absolute majority that has been the governing coalition's pleasure all these years, his strategy must be to field winners.

These two goals together would dictate the need for candidates that have much expertise to offer in building the nation and that the voters can trust. The latter is not the easiest when deciding on new faces and yet they are necessary to BN's succession plan. Herein is where the veterans have a special role to play, that is, to gracefully step down from their safe seats and make way for new blood. The BN line-up must look its part as a party that will usher in the future successfully, oozing with confidence, one from which the prime minister-elect is spoilt for choice when putting his cabinet together.

Indeed, there is ultimately a need for a good mix of the wise and the knowledgeable; the conventional and the radical; and, the established and the novel. However, one aspect of politics that ought to be phased out is the wheeling and dealing that has so often thwarted change and caused disillusionment among voters. The BN chief, in anticipating possible protests from these elements, has said that any unhappiness should be nursed only for 24 hours and then it must be business as usual: the local party machinery cranked up and immediately running to carry the candidate, local or otherwise, forward.

BN is a mature and stable coalition. Already, seats are being swapped by component parties in recognition of demographic changes, a clear indication that the imperative is winning, and winning big. Given this atmosphere, there is little fear of disgruntled voices disrupting the unity that has withstood five years of recriminations since March 8, 2008. Rather, the much anticipated moment to redeem past mistakes is here. Anyone out to stir the hornet's nest will have no support. The priority for BN leaders and workers is to remind the country that the coalition has delivered peace and prosperity without fail.