“The latest problems are due to us getting involved in the opposition's spin of issues. Our failure is in responding to issues, and dwelling on the issues being played by the opposition.

“The reality is that we are under attack and we (need to) defend ourselves. We have never attacked our political enemies.

“This is our weakness, Umno needs to take on a new approach,” Mingguan Malaysia quoted him as saying in an interview published today.

He was responding to the question on how BN and Umno can manage the current crisis in time for the 14th general election.

The nature of the ‘crisis’ was not specified in the article, but in covered several issues including Muhyiddin’s ( photo ) sacking from the cabinet and the 1MDB scandal.

Asked to elaborate on the new measures that BN should take, Zahid explained that the opposition has been strategising on how to best present issues about the country, the government, or BN to the public.

Although BN often performed analysis of these attacks, it is not doing enough to explain the issues, and not doing enough to expose the weaknesses of their political opponents, he said.

“They have many weaknesses too but they only expose our weaknesses, whereas we never expose the weaknesses of opposition parties […]

“Perhaps we don’t have enough expertise in manipulating (issues) on the opposition’s weaknesses. This should be the approach emphasised by Umno and BN’s leadership,” he said.