Umno's D-day is Sept 18, not Malaysia Day

Forget about September 16.' September 18 is shaping up to be a far more important day for Malaysia with far reaching consequences for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi"s two-year transition plan and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin"s political future.Next Thursday, the Umno Supreme Council will convene and the top of the agenda is likely to be Abdullah"s plan to hand over the reins of power in the party to Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.The council unanimously endorsed the transition plan in July. But following the Barisan Nasional"s defeat in Permatang Pauh on August 26 and his meeting with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in early September, Muhyiddin has called for a review of the plan.Speaking on the sidelines of the Forbes Conference in Singapore last week, he urged Abdullah to step down earlier, saying that the two year timetable was no longer tenable.He has followed up that call with cutting comments about Abdullah"s ability to lead Umno and Barisan Nasional. The Minister of International Trade and Industry may have moved too fast.Comments from several supreme council members and ministers show that not everyone believes that the transition plan should be revisited.Others like Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz, Negeri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Hsssan, Works Minister Datuk Zin Mohamed and defacto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim feel that Muhyiddin should be punished for going public with his comments about the transition plan and his criticism of Abdullah.A key player at the Sept 18 meeting will be Najib. He is under pressure from his supporters on the ground to push for a quicker handover of power.Their argument is this: Najib could become collateral damage in the current anti-Abdullah mood.Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also exerted pressure on the DPM, giving him and ultimatum of sorts during a recent meeting: challenge Abdullah or risk having your dirty linen washed in public.Najib"s comments on Friday where he said that it was up to party members to decide on the transition plan has sparked speculation that he is ready to back Muhyiddin"s idea of reviewing the transition plan.His opening statement at the September 18 is likely to set the tone of the debate at the council meeting.If he confirms that he is still committed to taking over the party presidency and the leadership of the country in 2010, this will mark the beginning of the end of Muhyiddin.It could force the Umno vice-president to resign from the Cabinet and officially declare himself the running mate of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.If Najib supports the call for a review of the transition plan, Abdullah"s political enemies and critics will pound and harass him further.On the ground, the Umno divisions will take the DPM"s change in stance as a signal that he is willing to accept nominations as the party president.At the moment, the DPM is still committed to the 2010 hand over, telling his friends that he is still more comfortable with Abdullah than he is with Muhyiddin or Dr Mahathir.But there are still a few more days to go before the defining meeting for Umno, Abdullah, Najib and Muhyiddin.

BN leaders count political costs ahead of Sept 16

Barisan Nasional politicians across the country are counting the political cost of events this past week and ruminating their future amid the opposition's diminishing bid to seize power by Tuesday.Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who gave in to public and political outrage by freeing Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng after an 18 hour detention under the Internal Security Act, knows it is a steeper task to regain people's support following the fresh ISA blitz.He already faces fresh calls to quit his Umno presidency ahead of party polls in December from no less than International Trade and Industry Minister and party vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who has also enticed Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to rejoin the party he quit in May.Mahathir has continued to wage a campaign to oust Abdullah and has not officially indicated he will return to the party he founded in 1988 to succeed the old Umno.Apart from his party woes, Abdullah and key cabinet ministers were briefed of rising racial tensions among the Malays and Chinese as cyberspace and coffee shop chatter heated up after Datuk Ahmad Ismail's rant and punishment together with unfounded allegations of DAP leader Teresa Kok's link to a petition to stop Muslim prayer calls.Despite it being political suicide, the government allowed the police to take action to cool the situation but it sparked the public's outrage over the use of the tough security law last used to detain Hindraf leaders.me have compared it to Dr Mahathir's crackdown in 1987 where 106 were held and several newspapers shut down under Ops Lalang but Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar has assured no further arrests are expected.Also facing fresh pressure from allies and critics to fight Abdullah for the top party post, deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has now left it to Umno divisional delegates to decide the president's future despite agreeing to a transition deal for June 2010.Najib, who has been fending off links to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, has stoutly defended the pact and pledged loyalty to Abdullah but the Umno ground has shifted against the PM after the Ahmad Ismail episode.The Malaysian Insider understands that Dr Mahathir's allies are ratcheting up the pressure on Najib, threatening to wash some dirty linen in public, if he doesn't challenge Abdullah.The former party president himself is now cool to the idea of Najib for the job, having openly endorsed Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Muhyiddin and Datuk Seri Rais Yatim separately in the past few months.Muhyiddin, once seen as a likely deputy to Abdullah but strong pressure from Dr Mahathir ensured Najib got the job, has finally voiced objections to the transition deal he supported some time ago. Observers say he is sulking for being passed over and has been offering to team up with either the Kelantan prince or Najib in the party elections.For the record, Muhyiddin won the Umno' vice-presidency in 1993 as part of the Wawasan Team led by a victorious deputy president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim but lost it to Abdullah in the subsequent election.Anwar, who was sacked from government and party posts in September 1998 on corruption and sodomy charges, has just returned to Parliament last month after almost 10 years in the political wilderness, six of which spent in jail.His prediction to unseat Abdullah by Malaysia Day since the opposition's historic gains in the March 8 elections has rattled the government and also the markets. His Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has been in hot pursuit of BN lawmakers to defect, much to the chagrin of allies Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas).

Only one BN component party, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is seen as likely to cross over' to Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat coalition as its party president Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee has continuously expressed a lack of confidence in Abdullah's leadership.The tiny Sabah party has two federal lawmakers and four state assemblymen under the BN banner and is scheduled to hold a meeting on Sept 17 to decide its future as the ruling coalition has yet to decide its status for calling the PM to quit.Analysts say Yong's strategy has always been to get BN to sack the party and use it to be martyr and hero for Sabahans but the coalition delay and the looming Sept 16 deadline has forced his hand and decide SAPP's future.But SAPP's decision a day after Anwar's bold prediction of a Sept 16 change of government' is an indication of the opposition icon's difficulty to get an exodus of lawmakers in time to capture Putrajaya.Ahmad Ismail's rant and subsequent arrest of the Chinese reporter was seen as a tipping point to get MCA and Gerakan politicians to jump ship but none have done so thus far as they mull their options in BN.With two days to go to the psychological deadline of Sept 16 despite Pakatan Rakyat's admission it might not meet the date, BN politicians are calculating costs, risks and options as they fight perceptions to stay in power.

Kit Siang: We don’t want money, power hungry defectors

The DAP will not accept Barisan Nasional (BN) members of parliament crossing over to the opposition to form the next government on Sept 16 if they are driven to do so by money and power.Its advisor Lim Kit Siang said the party would only welcome BN MPs into Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition pact, if they decided to cross over on the principle of wanting to bring about change to improve the lot of the people, and not for their political rice bowl."If they want to quit the ruling coalition and join us just for material gain, then it's unethical and unprincipled. We will not accept them."Whether a new government will be formed or not in nine days' time depends on many factors. We need to wait and see," he told reporters after officiating at the setting up of DAP branches in Sungai Tong, Setiu and in Kampung Cina, Kuala Terengganu with about 60 members.The DAP had opened up branches in Terengganu in 1990 but they were dissolved in 2002 due to poor response from the local community.Lim claimed that he did not know what kind of reward had been offered by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to 30 BN MPs, mainly from Sabah and Sarawak, said to be joining Pakatan Rakyat to form a new government on Sept 16.He also urged the amendment to the Federal Constitution made in 1990 that prohibits an MP who resigns from the post from contesting in the general election in the next five years to be abolished.He said this way it would enable those who resigned as MPs to stand by their principles and contest again in a by-election. — Bernama

Gerakan will leave BN if it no longer has meaningful role

Acting Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon says the party will review its role in the Barisan Nasional (BN). And if the review finds Gerakan no longer has a "meaningful" role in BN, then it would pull out of the coalition. Speaking at the party's Selangor Delegates Conference here today, he did not, however, announce a timeframe for which the review would be completed.His comments come even as BN has scheduled a supreme council meeting on Tuesday to thrash out the issue of component parties threatening to pull out of the ruling coalition amid racial disputes.The meeting comes as pressure mounts from within the ranks of MCA and Gerakan for reform in Umno, the party blamed by them for the loss of non-Malay support during the March general elections.Speaking to The Malaysian Insider after opening the Selangor conference, Dr Koh confirmed that the Supreme Council meeting would take place on Tuesday.He had told delegates earlier that "we will discuss, consult and finally come to a decision soon. I don't know when because we need to watch political developments", confirming in a press conference later than he was referring to the issue of their membership in BN."We will not blindly be yes-men. We will stay as long as we have a meaningful role," he said.When quizzed as to what would be a meaningful role, he said that there should be communication, mutual respect, shared ideas and consultation on programmes and policies.But he refused to offer a timeframe, stating that it had to be reasonable, not "immediately nor five years from now.He said that there had been progress as "there have been more meetings in the past six months than in the previous three years", referring to BN Supreme Council and management committee meetings.But he stressed that the coalition's leadership needed to meet more often than that. He admitted however, that he was currently "not too happy but not unhappy enough to leave BN."He insisted in his speech that as "Gerakanist", party members had to be rational and not allow "Ahmad Ismail to dictate whether we stay in BN or not. Don't give him that face, otherwise any branch or division leader can insult us and we want to leave"He was referring to reports that Bukit Bendera Umno chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail made racist remarks during the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign, by stating that Malaysian Chinese were squatting in the country."I am holding back my own anger because a coalition with such a long history of governance should not be victims of such remarks."He reiterated his calls for a code of conduct to be established in the coalition to deal with such cases in the future."In this case, police reports have been made, so the solution is to let the investigation carry on because one party will deny while the other says it has proof."But the long-term solution is to have a disciplinary committee for all BN members and not just leave it to component parties to handle internally."

2009 NATIONAL BUDGET AND ECONOMIC POLICY BRIEF BY DSAI

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (KeAdilan) recognizes that for millions of Malaysian citizens the economic climate has become a troublesome one. Malaysians today face ongoing reduction in their purchasing power, job insecurities, increased fuel prices, low wages, and a high gap between the rich and poor. KeAdilan believes that Malaysia can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines and allow the BN government to pursue a ‘too-little-too-late approach’ to addressing these issues. That is why, on this day, KeAdilan is pushing forward one more step its positions on the Malaysian Economic Agenda, to relieve the burden on Malaysians struggling with record high inflation levels and dwindling economic prospects. Whereas the current government has failed to adequately assess or address these issues, KeAdilan will pursue the policies critical to reasserting Malaysia’s quality of life, economic strength and competitiveness in the global economy.

Summary:

The KeAdilan proposals on the budget and response to the current BN government’s Malaysia Budget 2009 are based on a new model of socio-economic development drawing on an analysis of some of the best performing economies in the world. This specifically includes understanding the successes of Taiwan, Korea and Ireland, and integrating the best practices of these economies with the enormous potential of Malaysia’s natural and human resources as well as the positive aspects of Malaysia’s past development plans. When Parti Keadilan Rakyat model is implemented, the gap between Malaysia and other developed countries in terms of economic performance and living standards must be narrowed, instead of growing as it has under the current government. KeAdilan’s policies will spur a rapidly growing economy that can effectively compete at the regional and global level as well as open up numerous opportunities for all Malaysians and for all scales of business at the individual and sector level. KeAdilan’s educational and human development reforms will bring about an improved educational system and knowledge based economy and enable Malaysia’s domestic businesses to meet the global challenge with a locally sourced and higher skilled labor force.