Kedah Gerakan has proposed that the Barisan Nasional discards its practice of appointing BN divisional chairmen in all the states and instead allow election of the chairmen among component party members.

Kedah Gerakan chief Dr Cheah Soon Hai said BN should allow the democratic process of election amongst component parties because the BN divisional chairmen “carry lots of weight” in their respective BN divisional machinery.

Dr Cheah, who is also Derga State Assemblyman, said divisional chairmen of BN component parties are grassroots leaders and it is crucial to pick the right person to helm the respective BN divisions.

“Let the divisional chairmen and members of the respective BN component parties decide the best leader to be the BN divisional chairmen,” he said in a statement, adding that the proposal, if accepted, would also dispel the notion that BN is being monopolized by a single party.

Dr Cheah also said the election process for divisional chairmen would also be part of the transformation process of the BN to meet future challenges and hopefully to adopt the 1Malaysia party concept.

“While carrying out BN’s transformation process, we should discard practices and norms that are outdated or not beneficial and replace them with good ones in line with changing times,” he added.