The start of the end... ( 9 )

Screenshots
Thinking Allowed. Thinking Aloud.


Sincerely, I thank you for your tremendous response to the JEFF 4 MALAYSIA campaign.
Donors, volunteers and the silent majority, I salute you all. MORE!

Beat Internet censorship by Putrajaya.
Access RPK and Malaysia Today through http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008
September 20, 2008
The start of the end... ( 9 )
When Joceline Tan is on DHL...

The political writer in Joceline Tan is certainly not a good courier express. She's DHL... em... Dua Hari Lambat on the implosive Umno supreme council meeting on Thursday (August 18).

Though late she may be -- in a country where news leaks fist to the foreign press, and sometimes the bloggers -- Joceline definitely has the details other English press refused to print thus far. Quote:


Five supreme council members spoke during the closed-door meeting, four explaining the need for a quicker exit plan saying that it would not be feasible for the party president to stay beyond December when the party convenes for the General Assembly.

The four were vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Wanita chief Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and supreme council member Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who is Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister.


This is typical subtle Umno politics of face-saving culture in forcing for Abdullah's removal. What chance does Abdullah have when one of the two surviving vice presidents, the Wanita and Youth chiefs, and a representative chieftain of Sabah Umno, the saving grace and king-makers that helped hold the incumbent government -- representatively but collectively want Abdullah go?

Read on because the language was ferocious while the voice to save Abdullah was mute and meek:


Rafidah is said to have told Abdullah that Wanita grassroots members had informed her that he might not even be able to secure the minimum 58 nominations required to defend his presidency. Her no-holds barred approach caused several of those present to ask her to tone down.

Kelantan Umno chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa was the only one who spoke up for Abdullah, criticising those asking him to go.

He reminded the two top leaders that they had committed themselves to the 2010 transition plan.

Several more were about to speak but Najib, noticing that Abdullah was visibly affected, stepped in and ended the discussion, saying that those who spoke had made their point. He asked that Abdullah and him be allowed to take the discussion to a more “private level.”


Do you still think Najib Razak had to cancel his Middle East trip because he wanted to rearrange his schedule so that he could start his new duties at the Finance Ministry, as a result of shifting furniture on the sinking Titanic -- next Monday?

Or was it because Abdullah can't hold beyond October 9, and BN may fall within days?

BY THE WAY... I was told by insiders that Umno grassroots are now weighing the probabilities of a consolidation -- elicited from the quid pro quo of a Najib-Abdullah portfolio swap -- to secure a combined bloc of votes for the Son-in-Law to knock out Mukhriz Mahathir in the race for the Youth Chief's post.

That will decide whether the young-man-on-the-rush could become Prime Minister when he's 40 years old, and when Najib is Opposition Leader by then.

Watch this space!