Abdullah must look without to push reforms

OCT 17 - Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi could be out of office by December and his plans to push through several important reforms for Malaysia could end up stillborn.

Unless… unless he summons from somewhere the spirit and ability to fight off a new campaign by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and other senior Umno officials to get him to step down earlier than the March transition date.

The Umno vice-president flagged off the push by saying that he did not agree with the pushing back party elections from December to March.

“The campaign period is the longest in years and has never happened before. We will be on the campaign trail for four months compared to one month previously. All this because we want to accommodate the so-called transition plan," he said.

When asked whether it would be better to bring forward the Umno elections from March 2009, he played coy, saying that he would leave the matter to Abdullah and Datuk Seri Najib Razak to decide.

Abdullah’s supporters expected his political enemies in Umno to agitate for his early removal even though Najib, Muhyiddin and the rest of the Umno Supreme Council endorsed the March transition plan. They warned Abdullah that as soon as he made public his intention not to defend the party president’s position, there would be a move to shorten the transition period from March to December or January.

They cautioned him that several senior Umno leaders were uninterested and even alarmed by his desire to reform the judiciary and strengthen the Anti-Corruption Agency, believing that strengthening the institutions would undermine Umno.

But Abdullah – either because he was weighed down by the constant speculation over his future or because he genuinely feared that contesting the party polls could split Umno – still went ahead and announced on Oct 8 that he would not defend his party president’s position.

Even as late as last week, government officials told him that he had only one or two months to push through his reforms before the conservative forces in Umno pushed him out.

Now his supporters and some government officials worry that Najib will once again talk about a groundswell of discontent against the transition plan and persuade him to stand down earlier.

Will he fight to stay on to complete the reforms? Privately, he has said that he wants to ensure that, before he retires, the Judicial Appointments Commission is set up; the Anti-Corruption Commission is formed and legislation on the special tribunal on enforcement agencies is passed by Parliament.

Work has been going on behind the scenes to speed up the drafting of legislation covering these reforms.

But this is the reality: his power and standing in Umno weakens by the day. The party warlords and some ministers, born and bred on the concept of power and patronage, are deserting him. They know that there is little that he can do to influence their wealth or political fortunes.

Worse yet, they are not interested in his reforms. Against this backdrop, what are the odds on Abdullah fighting the “party momentum” and staying on until March? Slim to none.

Unless… unless he takes his platform of reform outside Umno and makes the Opposition and Malaysian public his allies. Abdullah versus Umno - now that's an interesting proposition. But time is not on his side.

-TMI