NST says:
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will step down as prime minister much earlier than the planned date of June 2010, possibly by March next year.
At an emergency Umno supreme council meeting, Abdullah declined to expressly state when he would vacate the prime minister's position.But he said the transition plan that he had outlined in July -- where he would hand over power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak in June 2010 -- was "no longer in place".
The STAR says:
Najib to take over sooner
By SHAHANAAZ HABIB, JANE RITIKOS, FLORENCE A. SAMY and LISA GOH
Umno special supreme council meeting
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will hand over power to his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak earlier than June 2010, it was announced yesterday.
Umno has also postponed its annual general assembly and supreme council elections to next March to facilitate the “early transition of power,” said Umno president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after chairing a special supreme council meeting yesterday.
Racun says:
Can somebody please tell Pak Lah and Najib that they do not decide on UMNO's future. UMNO's future is to be decided by UMNO (the branch delegates to the divisional meetings and after that the divisional delegates to the UMNO General Assembly). There are occassions when leadership guides the decision. This is allowable when the party is in a commanding position and respected.
But the situation now is very different. UMNO is not in command and the people is rejecting the Leader. So rightfully UMNO's grassroots will have to rally behind a strong leader which will be given a chance to prop up the confidence of UMNO members and also its component partners in the Barisan Nasional.
Penawar says:
Its good that the leadership postphonement is scheduled for March, 2009 so that Pak Lah can really prepare for his retirement. The Divisions can then nominate and vote in the new leaders from 9th October to 9th November. When these new leaders won uncontested, (because the grapevine says that if Najib doesn't want to go for the number one post then there will be retractors who will back KuLi, if all the divisions agreed to Nominate Najib to take over, the nominations in the divisional meetings from 9/10 to 9/11, then KuLi will not get the splinter nominations.
UMNO will be strengthened with the new leadership and all UMNO members will rally behind and be united to face the future challenges together with renewed confidence and influence of their component partners in the Barisan Nasional.
Conclusion says:
Pak Lah is very wise to suggest this option, so that within now until March, 2009 (about 6 months time) he can systematically hand over the reign of the country to Dato Seri Najib.
The ideal situation says:
If this is the case, then the handover should be done by the 9th of October, 2008 so that UMNO is in a position to lead the BN pact before the other component parties had sorted out their leadership changes. UMNO is the backbone and it still has to be the spine for the reconstruction of Malaysian politics.
