Umm... No.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi all but admitted that he was on his way out when he said yesterday that the dominant Umno has postponed its party elections to March next year to “facilitate an early transition plan”.

The script, which originally scheduled polls for December, will still proceed, with divisional elections beginning on Oct 9, according to a decision taken at an unexpectedly short emergency meeting of Umno's supreme council. Prior to the meeting, there was a brief meeting between Abdullah and Datuk Seri Najib Razak, his deputy in party and government.

According to Umno officials, Abdullah did not say unequivocally that he would not seek re-election in the next polls. But in elliptical Malay style, he intimated it. Meeting reporters later, he said that he would make a statement on or before Oct 9, the day Umno divisions begin meeting to nominate party leaders. “I am not under any pressure and it will be my decision. It will be my decision alone but you can go on guessing.”

The original handover plan was for Abdullah to leave in June 2010. The new plan was, apparently, presented to the supreme council by Abdullah and Najib after their earlier meeting. According to a close ally of the premier, Abdullah is set to announce before Oct 9 that he would not seek re-election, paving the way for Umno's 191 divisions to mostly nominate Najib for party president.

This outcome will almost definitely cripple former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's chances of obtaining enough nominations to make a bid for the party presidency. That is not to say that the prince will not try. “I think I speak for the country when I say we are embarrassed at the sight of two grown men playing this endless children's game of ‘yours and mine’ with the most important job in the country,” Tengku Razaleigh said in response to the new plan. “Instead of a national economic plan or any kind of reform, we have a ‘transition plan’ to save two individuals from the inconvenience of facing elections,” he said. “Their personal careers appear more important than the future of the country.”

Still, the new transition plan could bolster the chances of International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his quest to replace Najib as Umno's deputy president. Muhyiddin was one of the first Umno leaders to speak out against Abdullah in the immediate aftermath of the March 8 general election and has consistently maintained that stand until yesterday. That sort of directness is rare and is expected to win him the appreciation of many Umno delegates. But he could be challenged - and indeed is likely to be. Among his possible challengers: Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Ali Rustam and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Zahid Hamidi.

-TMI