KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S prime minister, facing a resurgent opposition and rebellious colleagues in the ruling party, said on Wednesday he may hand over power to his deputy before the mid-2010 deadline he set earlier.Mr Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also handed over his finance ministry portfolio to his deputy Mr Najib Razak on Wednesday. He will take the less important defence ministry from Mr Najib.
The premier said he and his deputy were committed to their transition plan, which has been criticised within the ruling party as undemocratic, but that the mid-2010 deadline could be brought forward.
'I will decide when I want to go... I will not be staying more than 2010 naturally,' Mr Abdullah told a press conference with Mr Najib.
'If I should want to go earlier, that is flexible. That is the flexibility we have arranged,' he said of the deal forged with Mr Najib after disastrous March elections that triggered calls for him to quit. 'It depends on the progress of the role I am giving to Najib. Let's see what he can do.'
The changes were apparently aimed at gradually handing over greater responsibilities to Mr Najib as part of a planned power transfer.
This is the first time that Mr Abdullah has said that he may be willing to leave the office earlier, as pressure on him mounted to accelerate a planned transition of power to Mr Najib set for 2010. He did not elaborate on whether an earlier departure could be this year or next.
Mr Najib welcomed Mr Abdullah's move and said it showed 'his commitment to me as his replacement.' However, he was non-committal when asked how he would respond if the ruling party's grassroots nominated him for the top job in upcoming internal elections. 'We leave it to the party,' he said.
Mr Abdullah's announcement comes amid calls by dissidents for him to retire early after he led the ruling National Front coalition to its worst ever election results in the 51 years it has been in power since independence in 1957.
The Front won a simple majority of 140 seats in the 222-member Parliament in the March 8 elections, sliding from a two-thirds majority it had enjoyed for decades. The Front also lost control of five of Malaysia's 13 states to opposition leader Mr Anwar Ibrahim's People's Alliance coalition.
Mr Anwar claims he is now on the verge of toppling the government through parliamentary defections. He says he has pledges of support from more than 31 National Front lawmakers ready to defect to the People's Alliance.
However, Mr Anwar has refused to divulge their names, and Mr Abdullah has rejected the claim as a 'mirage.' 'He has become a threat to the economy and national security,' he said, a serious allegation in Malaysia, where the government can use draconian internal security laws to detain its opponents without trial.
'I will not indicate what plan I will take, what I do will be in the best interests of the people and the country,' Mr Abdullah said.
Mr James Chin, a political analyst from Monash University's campus in Kuala Lumpur, said the comments were a clear warning that Mr Anwar could face arrest under the Internal Security Act (ISA). 'If they arrest Anwar under ISA it will not be accepted by both Malaysians and the international community,' he said.
But even if turns out that Mr Anwar is bluffing, it doesn't help Mr Abdullah whose popularity is at its lowest in the ruling coalition as well as among the people, thanks to a moribund economy, huge inflation and increasing racial tensions among the country's majority Malays and minority Chinese and Indians.
Meanwhile, the opposition kept up its pressure on Mr Abdullah.
Opposition lawmaker Tian Chua, a senior aide to Mr Anwar, said the People's Alliance would give Mr Abdullah 'a few days' to voluntarily hand over power to the opposition to ensure a peaceful transition.
'He (Anwar)'s going to be prime minister. It's a question of days,' he told The Associated Press.
Source StraitsTimes.com
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