Prepare succession plan : Johor Umno tells Pak Lah
Malaysiakini.com
Apr 11, 2008
Muda Mohd Noor

The Umno Johor liaison committee has urged party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to prepare a "succession plan" for his post. MCPX

According to sources, this was relayed to Abdullah during a meeting between Umno Johor leaders and the prime minister.

The succession plan was mooted as an early preparation for the next general election.

Although no time-frame has been set for the succession plan, those at the meeting were adamant that such a plan be put in place, said the source.

Following this, Bernama reported that Abdullah will discuss with his deputy Najib Abdul Razak on the transition of power to the latter.

This was revealed by Umno vice-president Muhyiddin Yassin, who said that Abdullah had told the closed-door meeting that he would discuss in detail the power transition plan with Najib.

"The period of transition and so on were not mentioned in detail...matters such as when the transition will take place and so on will be discussed between him (Abdullah) and Najib," Muhyiddin told reporters after attending the meeting at a hotel. 

ghani othmanAccording to sources who spoke to Malaysiakini, the plan was raised by Johor Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, who also heads the state liaison committee.

The sources said Abdul Ghani stressed that the plan was important in order for the "people to be comfortable" with the party leadership.

However, the sources said, Umno Johor's call for Abdullah to step down was not as harsh as Umno Kedah's yesterday.

"The way we voiced our feelings reflected the Johor culture. We love the prime minister but he must also understand the sentiments of our members," they said.

Immediate solution

Sources said during the meeting many of those present called for the succession plan to be crafted immediately.

NONE"Many felt that the succession plan is an immediate solution which has to be made public," said sources.

The sources claimed that Abdullah said he would consider this but added that he "would not reveal anything to anyone" without elaborating what he meant by this.

The more than two-hour-long meeting also saw a post-mortem being conducted on Umno’s performance in the March 8 polls.

It was during this, sources said, Abdullah admitted to being a contributing factor to the poor results obtained by Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Previously, Malaysiakini reported that a majority of Umno Johor’s 26 division leaders want Abdullah to go on leave and hand over control to his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak.

Since the elections, Abdullah has come under intense pressure to vacate his post. Leading the charge are former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other Umno veterans like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

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