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Prepare succession plan: Johor Umno tells Pak Lah - Malaysiakini
Muda Mohd Noor Apr 11, 08 8:52pm

The Umno Johor liaison committee has urged party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to prepare a "succession plan" for his post.

According to sources, this was relayed to Abdullah during a meeting between Umno Johor leaders and the prime minister.

The succession plan was mooted as an early preparation for the next general election.

Although no time-frame has been set for the succession plan, those at the meeting were adamant that such a plan be put in place, said the source.

Following this, Bernama reported that Abdullah will discuss with his deputy Najib Abdul Razak on the transition of power to the latter.This was revealed by Umno vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin, who said that Abdullah had told the closed-door meeting that he would discuss in detail the power transition plan with Najib."The period of transition and so on were not mentioned in detail...matters such as when the transition will take place and so on will be discussed between him (Abdullah) and Najib," Muhyiddin told reporters after attending the meeting at a hotel.

According to sources who spoke to Malaysiakini, the plan was raised by Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, who also heads the state liaison committee.

The sources said Abdul Ghani stressed that the plan was important in order for the "people to be comfortable" with the party leadership.

However, the sources said, Umno Johor's call for Abdullah to step down was not as harsh as Umno Kedah's yesterday.

"The way we voiced our feelings reflected the Johor culture. We love the prime minister but he must also understand the sentiments of our members," they said.
Immediate solution

Sources said during the meeting many of those present called for the succession plan to be crafted immediately.

"Many felt that the succession plan is an immediate solution which has to be made public," said sources.

The sources claimed that Abdullah said he would consider this but added that he "would not reveal anything to anyone" without elaborating what he meant by this.

The more than two-hour-long meeting also saw a post-mortem being conducted on Umno’s performance in the March 8 polls.

It was during this, sources said, Abdullah admitted to being a contributing factor to the poor results obtained by Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Previously, Malaysiakini reported that a majority of Umno Johor’s 26 division leaders want Abdullah to go on leave and hand over control to his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak.

Since the elections, Abdullah has come under intense pressure to vacate his post. Leading the charge are former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other Umno veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Calls for PM to resign will be handled internally
Apr 11, 08 5:08pm

Umno will deal internally the calls made by several Kedah Umno leaders for party president and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to step down, said Najib Abdul Razak today.

“It is an internal issue. We will address the matter internally,” said the party deputy president and deputy prime minister.

Najib was commenting on reports yesterday that several Kedah delegates had blamed Abdullah for the Barisan Nasional’s poor showing in the March 8 polls during a meeting with the party’s management committee.

These delegates want Najib, who is also the management committee head, to take over the top post to save the party.He declined to comment further on what transpired at the meeting yesterday.

He also told reporters not to listen to rumours.Yesterday Malaysiakini

reported that the 15 Umno divisions in Kedah - which is now under opposition control - gave a harsh verdict on Abdullah, forcing Najib to call for calm.Umno has been doing its soul-searching following its terrible defeat in the elections.

The party’s candidates lost several safe seats - 36 of which Abdullah blamed on internal saboteurs.Several factions within Umno, including former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had blamed Abdullah’s weak leadership for the defeat. Mahathir has been calling for Abdullah to step down to take responsibility for the poor electoral show.

The Kedah delegate had told Najib yesterday that one of the reasons for the bad election run was due to mistakes made by the party in selecting candidates. They said that division leaders were not consulted in the selection process.

Party candidates were decided by Abdullah after consultation with respective state leaders.

Personal political agendaFollowing this, today the influential Seremban Umno division chief Ishak Ismail added pressure on the party leadership by claiming that several state Umno chairpersons failed to listen to division chiefs on the selection of candidates.

He said certain chairpersons or menteris besar felt that they were “too big” to listen to the views of the division and branch leaders who knew the situation on the ground."The situation got worse when party president Abdullah entrusted them with the responsibility of selecting the candidates.

“They misused this trust by sidelining people whom they disliked not for the sake of Umno but for the sake of their personal political agenda," he said in his letter to the prime minister which he released to the media today.

Ishak, a three-term state assemblyman for Lenggeng, was not chosen to contest the recent election.

Copies of the letter were sent to the deputy president Mohd Najib Razak, vice-presidents Mohd Ali Rustam and Muhyiddin Yassin; all supreme council members and Negri Sembilan Umno division chiefs. Abdullah is in Johor today and will be meeting the state Umno leaders, who is expected to tell him their disappointment with his leadership.

Several sources previously told Malaysiakini that the Johor leaders would be asking Abdullah to stipulate his retirement plan and indicate when he would allow Najib to take over.