Party behind Pak Lah
Malay Mail (26/5/08):It was well past midnight at the 39th floor of the Umno headquarters on Thursday when top party leaders held a four-hour emergency meeting to discuss the sudden resignation by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Umno member and his call to Umno and BN members to resign and bring down the government.
While some Umno leaders were in a sombre mood, Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was relaxed and jovial. He deftly left it to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak to handle the announcement, saying since the issues discussed involved him it was better Najib spoke.
During the seven-minute Press conference, Abdullah sat calm and relaxed. Taken together, it was hardly the picture of a man in deep trouble, whose government was tottering on the brink as political analysts were saying.
In fact, he was like a man with a heavy burden taken off his shoulders.
The debate behind closed doors had gone mostly his way. Although Umno leaders worried over the implications of Dr Mahathir’s dramatic resignation on the Umno grassroots, they were also worked up over the quandary their former leader had left them in.
“We had no problem standing firm behind Abdullah because doing what (Tun Dr) Mahathir is asking is sheer nonsense,” said a Supreme Council member. “It will plunge the country into chaos.
“We don’t accept his logic of how Umno and BN can remain strong against a united opposition by us resigning and becoming independent. It doesn’t masuk akal (make any sense).” The Supreme Council which accepted Dr Mahathir’s resignation decided it only ambil maklum, or takes note, of the resignation and hoped one day he would rejoin Umno.
Significantly the Supreme Council did not decide to woo Dr Mahathir back or set up a special committee to debate his reasons to quit as it had done when then deputy president Datuk (now Tun) Musa Hitam resigned in 1986.
Only Najib appears to hold out saying he will meet Dr Mahathir to discuss the resignation. For all intents and purposes, it appears Dr Mahathir’s resignation is final unless Umno sees dramatic upheavals, which seem unlikely.
Umno has a tradition of closing ranks behind leaders leaving in anger as in the case of Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar in 1951. Likewise Dr Mahathir’s departure will help Abdullah consolidate his position, purge the party of Mahathir loyalists and begin the long process to get Umno back on its feet. The party is preparing an Umno Rejuvenation Plan and a special meeting of the Supreme Council will be held to finalise details of the plan whose success or failure will make or break the party.
Dr Mahathir, however, remains a key player in Umno and the political stage. The increasingly racial overtones of his campaign are worrying many Malaysians who wonder how far he would go to exploit Malay fears of their political future.
Abdullah also has to contend with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah trying to get to the political centre stage from the sidelines.
A more direct threat is the stratagems of senior vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who has come to a crossroad in his career.
With the Abdullah-Najib team set to be re-elected in December, Muhyiddin either goes for broke challenging either one of the incumbents or defends his vice-president’s post, a very unattractive proposition.
Either way the risks are very high but his increasingly hostile attitude towards Abdullah indicates he is preparing for high risk play.
On the outside, Abdullah has to grapple with the dangers from the Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim whose fre- quent claims to “have the numbers” to topple the government is unsettling.
Many in the DAP are opposed to Anwar’s moves to buy over BN parliamentarians, seeing it as immoral and unethical. Neither is Pas happy with it, seeing the whole exercise as “useless and entirely un-Islamic”.
Nevertheless, greed is a significant factor in politics and if skillfully exploited can produce results.
Abdullah, therefore, has a tough job ahead — keep Umno united, neutralise Dr Mahathir, head-off Razaleigh’s challenge, save the government from Anwar and carry out reforms, not to mention keeping food and fuel prices down.
Abdullah has one prized asset going for him —the power of incumbency, the power to stay in power. (Baradan Kuppusamy)
While some Umno leaders were in a sombre mood, Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was relaxed and jovial. He deftly left it to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak to handle the announcement, saying since the issues discussed involved him it was better Najib spoke.
During the seven-minute Press conference, Abdullah sat calm and relaxed. Taken together, it was hardly the picture of a man in deep trouble, whose government was tottering on the brink as political analysts were saying.
In fact, he was like a man with a heavy burden taken off his shoulders.
The debate behind closed doors had gone mostly his way. Although Umno leaders worried over the implications of Dr Mahathir’s dramatic resignation on the Umno grassroots, they were also worked up over the quandary their former leader had left them in.
“We had no problem standing firm behind Abdullah because doing what (Tun Dr) Mahathir is asking is sheer nonsense,” said a Supreme Council member. “It will plunge the country into chaos.
“We don’t accept his logic of how Umno and BN can remain strong against a united opposition by us resigning and becoming independent. It doesn’t masuk akal (make any sense).” The Supreme Council which accepted Dr Mahathir’s resignation decided it only ambil maklum, or takes note, of the resignation and hoped one day he would rejoin Umno.
Significantly the Supreme Council did not decide to woo Dr Mahathir back or set up a special committee to debate his reasons to quit as it had done when then deputy president Datuk (now Tun) Musa Hitam resigned in 1986.
Only Najib appears to hold out saying he will meet Dr Mahathir to discuss the resignation. For all intents and purposes, it appears Dr Mahathir’s resignation is final unless Umno sees dramatic upheavals, which seem unlikely.
Umno has a tradition of closing ranks behind leaders leaving in anger as in the case of Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar in 1951. Likewise Dr Mahathir’s departure will help Abdullah consolidate his position, purge the party of Mahathir loyalists and begin the long process to get Umno back on its feet. The party is preparing an Umno Rejuvenation Plan and a special meeting of the Supreme Council will be held to finalise details of the plan whose success or failure will make or break the party.
Dr Mahathir, however, remains a key player in Umno and the political stage. The increasingly racial overtones of his campaign are worrying many Malaysians who wonder how far he would go to exploit Malay fears of their political future.
Abdullah also has to contend with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah trying to get to the political centre stage from the sidelines.
A more direct threat is the stratagems of senior vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who has come to a crossroad in his career.
With the Abdullah-Najib team set to be re-elected in December, Muhyiddin either goes for broke challenging either one of the incumbents or defends his vice-president’s post, a very unattractive proposition.
Either way the risks are very high but his increasingly hostile attitude towards Abdullah indicates he is preparing for high risk play.
On the outside, Abdullah has to grapple with the dangers from the Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim whose fre- quent claims to “have the numbers” to topple the government is unsettling.
Many in the DAP are opposed to Anwar’s moves to buy over BN parliamentarians, seeing it as immoral and unethical. Neither is Pas happy with it, seeing the whole exercise as “useless and entirely un-Islamic”.
Nevertheless, greed is a significant factor in politics and if skillfully exploited can produce results.
Abdullah, therefore, has a tough job ahead — keep Umno united, neutralise Dr Mahathir, head-off Razaleigh’s challenge, save the government from Anwar and carry out reforms, not to mention keeping food and fuel prices down.
Abdullah has one prized asset going for him —the power of incumbency, the power to stay in power. (Baradan Kuppusamy)
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