Umno MPs remain loyal, no exodus from party

Don't expect anyone else to resign if Mahathir's son is not resigning. It just doesn't carry any weight for the whole thing to follow through. Just not convincing enough. Looks like Umno members are matured enough not to follow their once admired leader in this. However Dr.M might just not rest here. A strong leader is afterall one who can sway and convince a large group of followers to his ideology. Dr. M sure is strong and aggressive, combative, persuasive leader. Without power, he is not quite able to get things done his own way. From the comments on his blog, he sure has lots of admirers and supporters. He might use this support to get what he wants.

Whatever he does, successfully or otherwise, Umno has cracked. An antique vase once broken is not worth its original value. It will only remain as an old broken vase, once valuable and admired, to be studied only for its history lessons. Dr. M's aggression after retirement merely reverse his popularity with the people of Malaysia who had dearly remembered him for his style, but this very style now serves to bring out the nasty things he had done during his tenure, like the judiciary, the things he did to Anwar, his friendships with various business like Vincent Tan, etc...

His resignation is now called a removal of a "thorn in the flesh" by his once deputy, Musa Hitam. Such comments would have been more reserved, however this latest move of Dr. M has called for more drastic comments by those who knew him well.

Tuesday May 20, 2008 MYT 6:23:34 PM

Mukhriz not quitting, urges PM to step down (updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth executive council member Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said he is not resigning from Umno, but reiterated his call for Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi to step down as prime minister and party president.

The Jerlun MP, who is expected to contest for the post of Umno Youth chief in December, had previously called for Abdullah to step down after the March 8 polls that saw the Barisan Nasional coalition losing its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

On Monday, Mukhriz's father, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, resigned from the party, citing his dissatisfaction over the current leadership.

He urged other Umno members to also leave until there was a change in party leadership.

Father and son have both attributed -- directly in the case of the former -- Barisan's disappointing performance in the 12th general election to Abdullah.

After the polls, Mukhriz had written a letter to Abdullah urging him to take responsibility for the dismal results, but later denied that he had asked the Prime Minister to quit.

In April, Mukhriz said that a party leadership change should occur by the end of the year so that a tense contest can be avoided during the Umno annual assembly in December.

He said any contest during party polls could further fracture the party, and urged Abdullah to hand over the reins to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

On Monday, former premier Dr Mahathir announced that he would be quitting the party, much to the surprise of party members nationwide.

Umno MPs remain loyal, no exodus from party
PM moves quickly to reassure party's elected representatives at lunch meeting

Abdullah Badawi (centre) greeting some Umno MPs from Sarawak at Parliament House today. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Umno MPs today rebuffed an invitation by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to join him and quit the ruling party en masse.

At a lunch meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, they pledged their loyalty to Umno, applauding robustly and thumping the table when Abdullah reminded them no Umno member should ever leave the party.

The party president said that by resigning from the party and urging others to follow his action, Dr Mahathir had put self above the interest of the party. MPs who attended the meeting said the atmosphere was calm with the bulk of the discourse being on strengthening the party and the strategy to tackle a motion by DAP’s Lim Kit Siang on the illegal immigrants problem in Sabah.

Tun Dr Mahathir stunned the country yesterday when he announced that he was resigning from the party and would only rejoin when Abdullah stepped down as party

president, chairman of Barisan Nasional and prime minister of Malaysia. He said that he was forced to take this drastic action because Abdullah refused to take responsibility for BN’s poor performance in Election 2008 and quit.

He urged Umno ministers, MPs, state assemblymen and division chiefs to follow his lead and quit the party. Only by doing so, will Abdullah be forced to step down before the party elections in December, he reasoned.

Abdullah called the meeting with MPs to assure them that he was taking steps to strengthen the party and head off a possible crossover of some elected representatives. The resignation of 30 Umno MPs would have set off a chain of events leading to the possible collapse of the government and fresh elections.

The PM told the MPs that Umno was still the strongest party in Malaysia and every effort must be made to preserve the party’s parliamentary majority. He admitted that there were problems but the leadership was committed to fixing it. He said that he had spoken to Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and both were in agreement that no one must leave Umno.

Najib is in Egypt on an official trip. The conventional wisdom is that if Abdullah and Najib stay united it will be difficult for Mahathir’s gambit to gain any traction among the power brokers in the party.

At his meeting with MPs, Abdullah also reminded them that the party’s strength comes from Umno being accepted by the public and not only its members. MPs therefore had to be seen championing causes important to all Malaysians.

Several MPs spoke at the sessions, some of them like Seri Gading MP Mohamed Aziz and Datuk Tajudin Rahman pledged loyalty to the party but many were more interested in discussing housekeeping matters, such as budget allocation for poverty eradication projects and better coordination between ministries.

Kalabakan MP Datuk Ghapur Salleh, who caused a stir in the House last week when he supported the idea of a crossover by Sabah MPs to the Opposition, touched on less contentious issues this time. He told Abdullah that MPs were facing difficulty meeting Cabinet ministers and also suggested to the Information Minister that Umno MPs get more coverage on television.

An MP told The Malaysian Insider: "We have so many bread and butter issues to tackle. We cannot solve what the rakyat expects us to do by focusing on Tun’s resignation."

For now at least it seems that the Umno MPs are staying put.