Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia:-
It was exactly a week ago that Dr Mahathir announced he was quitting the United Malay National Party, of which he was one of its earliest members.
Some analyst called it ‘Mahathir’s last gambit’. Some said that it was exactly a sign of frustration on his part.
The former Prime Minister had vehemently criticised the present government and its top leadership after their hefty losses at the 12th National election. He had also openly called on Abdullah to resign and demand for an extraordinary General assembly of UMNO.
What irked him more was the opinion of some UMNO members that he was also responsible for some of the losses in that particular election. It was his biting criticism of Abdullah that resulted in some traditional UMNO voters abandoning UMNO. This voting trend particularly favoured the Opposition PKR Party as most of their candidates were also fellow Malays.
A week after Mahathir’s openly, again, called on Abdullah to resign as President of UMNO and as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the situation is back to normal.
Some political analyst were predicting some degree of exodus out of UMNO and rallying behind Dr Mahathir. So far, the only UMNO member quitting the party openly after Dr Mahathir is Mokhzani Mahathir, on of his sons.
So what now for UMNO? According to most senior members of the party, the party will go on with its planned Reactivation Plan. The Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi will call the shots as usual since he is still the elected leader both of UMNO and Malaysia.
As for Dr Mahathir and his family, they hoped all the best for them.
Abdullah had received pledges of support from all National Front members of Parliament. This is very important as this coalition still commanded a clear majority and only short of eight seats to make it a "two-third majority" that most Malaysia were used to.
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