MUHYIDDIN SAYS PM SHOULD RETHINK TRANSITION PLAN TIMEFRAME

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab
SINGAPORE, Sept 11 (Bernama) - Umno Vice-President Muhyiddin Yassin says Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should rethink his transition plan to step down by 2010 as the timeframe was too long.

The transition plan revealed by Abdullah two months ago, he claimed,
had "sunk away" and that the people were not thinking about it any more.

"The year 2010 is too long," he told a news conference on the
sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference here.

Under the plan for transition of power, Abdullah is to hand over the
post of
prime minister, chairmanship of the National Front (Barisan Nasional) (BN) and
presidency of Umno
to his deputy Najib Tun Razak in June 2010.

Muhyiddin said he had even asked Najib whether he wanted to wait that long
as he (Najib) would have little time to manage and bring the confidence of the
people back to Umno and the BN.

Saying that he had always been critical of the matter as it was of interest
to all Malaysians, he asked Abdullah to rethink it.

Abdullah had said that the transition plan was to strengthen Umno
solidarity and put party members at ease following too much politicking after
the last general election which the BN won by a simple majority in
Parliament.

Asked on speculation that he would team up with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to
mount a challenge for the Umno deputy presidency and presidency respectively,
Muhyiddin replied, "Like you said, it is just speculation."

The speculation arose from a meeting between Muhyiddin and former Prime
Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the latter's house in Cyberjaya last
Saturday, where Tengku Razaleigh was also present.

At the meeting, Mahathir also voiced his intention to rejoin Umno which he
left last May.

Muhyiddin said that though Mahathir had left Umno, he was still talking
a lot about the party, particularly on ways to strengthen it, and bringing the
people's confidence back to the party.

He said it was a good move by Dr Mahathir and believed that it would be
welcomed by Umno members as it would put the party back in high spirits.
However, he said, he had no idea to date on Abdullah's reaction to Dr Mahathir's
intention to rejoin Umno.

Muhyiddin said, "We have to be very open about it and Dr Mahathir's views
are still well sought after, and he could contribute by strengthening the
party."

On a statement by People's Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) advisor Anwar Ibrahim
Tuesday night that his target date of Sept 16 to form the government may not be
achieved and his subsequent retraction Wednesday that the plan was again on
track, Muhyiddin said, "He is always (doing a) "flip-flop" in his actions and he
is just playing around to attract the attention of the people."

Even from the very beginning, Muhyiddin had said that he did not believe in
Anwar's plan to wrest control of the government.

And as a politician who had been in the game for a long time, he said that
he knew that it was not a trend among politicians in Malaysia to cross over in
large numbers. Muhyiddin said Anwar was always good at "moving the goal posts"
to suit his objectives.

The United Malays National Organisation, or UMNO, is a right-wing party
and
Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the Barisan Nasional
coalition, which has ruled the country uninterruptedly since its
independence.


-- BERNAMA