SOME WANT PAK LAH TO EXIT EARLIER - Malaysiakini

from : Straits Times Singapore

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Some Umno leaders are agitating for an earlier exit date for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, just a week after top leaders agreed that he should retire by the end of March. The views from the restive ground were reflected by comments from party vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

He told reporters on Thursday that the four-month campaign period for the party election was too long and that many members felt likewise, in a none-too-subtle hint for Abdullah to step down earlier.

“I am saying this because there are many who share the same concern because there can be the issue of money politics and will drain resources like energy and funds.

“The campaign period is the longest in years and has never happened before. All this because we want to accommodate the so-called power transition plan,” he said.

Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is contesting a vice-president’s post, yesterday agreed with Muhyiddin.

He said Umno should hold its election by December as originally scheduled but Abdullah could remain as Prime Minister until March.

The Umno internal polls were postponed from December to March, to allow a graceful exit for Abdullah.

But other issues have since come into play to rattle the week-old plan, some party officials say. They want Umno to regroup earlier under the newly anointed leader, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, amid sustained attacks on his integrity, they say.

But supporters of Abdullah are angry, seeing the renewed push as a move backed by former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. They claimed that Dr Mahathir, a bitter critic of Abdullah, wanted to oust the Premier earlier so that he could become the de facto prime minister behind Najib.

Dr Mahathir has rejected the claim. “That is nonsense. He is his own man, not my man.”
A Kedah Umno leader told The Straits Times: “In all fairness, what can Abdullah do in the next five months? We want to give him a respectful early exit, but his boys have not accepted this fact.”

Under a revised transition plan announced last week, Abdullah will not contest the Umno internal elections and will step down by March. He had wanted to retire by June 2010, but was forced to take the March date after realising he has poor support in Umno.

Deputy PM Najib is the popular successor in Umno, having picked up all 29 nominations so far to become the new Umno president in the ongoing annual meetings of the party's divisions.
The other contender, former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, has so far failed to get a single nomination.

A minimum of 30 per cent of the party's 191 divisions must nominate a leader who wished to contest the president's post. This works out to 58 nominations.

Muhyiddin has been a popular choice to become the new Umno deputy president and deputy prime minister, based on the large number of nominations he has received.

He is also being rewarded by the ground after sticking out his neck last month by saying the June 2010 exit plan was not feasible, party officials say.

But the going has been rough for Najib since he was anointed.

He has come under attack in connection with the case of a murdered Mongolian woman in which one of the prime accused is a friend and former adviser.

An exchange of text messages between Najib and a former lawyer of Razak Baginda was recently posted on a popular website, which led to claims of abuse of power by the deputy prime minister in the case. Najib did not deny the exchange of messages but said there was no abuse of power.

Mid-week, he faced allegations that he had improperly awarded a RM2.3 billion contract to buy new helicopters for the Defence Ministry. He maintained that everything was above board.

“What is clear is that the allegations will cast a pall over the future of Najib for a long time,” said a blogger and former MP, Datuk Ruhanie Ahmad. He said many people believed the allegations were being implanted by “insiders”.

Responding to what appeared to be a sustained attempt to undermine his position, Najib hastily summoned Umno MPs for a breakfast meeting on Thursday during which he stoutly defended himself over the SMS issue and helicopter deal.

The meeting was also a call to arms for the MPs to fight off opposition attacks in Parliament, according to the New Straits Times. —