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Net campaign urges Abdullah to quit
Fri, Mar 14, 2008 The Straits Times
KUALA LUMPUR - SOME Umno members are mounting an Internet campaign demanding the Prime Minister's resignation after massive losses in national elections at the weekend. The initiative is an indication of brewing dissent against Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, who has repeatedly insisted he will not step down and that he commands the loyalty of most members of his dominant United Malays National Organisation. A popular website called Maya Kmu Dot Net sought support this week for a petition urging him to 'resign voluntarily as prime minister and Umno president'.

The site says it has conducted a poll in which some 90 per cent of more than 2,500 respondents so far say Datuk Seri Abdullah should quit.

Umno grassroots official, Mohamad Noh Zainudin, who pledged support for the petition, said yesterday that Datuk Seri Abdullah must shoulder the blame for 'the government's poor image, which caused the bad results' in Saturday's general election.

'At the grassroots level, there is a feeling that the Prime Minister should step down,' Mr Mohamad Noh, an Umno branch official in Perak, told The Associated Press.

'The senior leaders cannot express this because there is a culture of not speaking out.'

Top party leaders have backed Datuk Seri Abdullah, saying no one is solely responsible for election results which saw the government lose its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since 1969 despite winning enough seats to remain in power.

Umno, whose members are from the Malay Muslim majority, forms the backbone of the governing Barisan Nasional coalition.

The election results were the worst ever for the 14-party coalition, which retained control of only eight of Malaysia's 13 states.

Former premier Mahathir Mohamad is the only prominent Umno figure so far to publicly call for Datuk Seri Abdullah's resignation.

Datuk Seri Abdullah took his oath of office on Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said this week that Umno leaders would reject any calls for Datuk Seri Abdullah to resign, adding there should not be 'any speculation or effort to change leadership'.

But analysts say the Premier's position remains shaky and that he could face behind-the-scenes defiance of his leadership ahead of Umno party elections in August amid grumblings about how he has tackled problems such as rising prices, crime and racial and religious tensions.

Datuk Seri Abdullah, in the meantime, was continuing efforts to forge a new Cabinet, meeting a host of BN leaders yesterday. He is expected to unveil a new slimline Cabinet by Monday, cutting back posts after the unprecedented election losses.

The Star daily yesterday said posts would be trimmed in line with the smaller government presence in Parliament, where it now has 140 lawmakers compared to 198 in the outgoing administration.

Datuk Seri Abdullah told Bernama news agency the new line-up would reflect the coalition's racial power-sharing concept and would include all the communities - majority Muslim Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians.

He has said the new Cabinet would hold its first meeting next Wednesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE