A challenger to Malaysia’s prime minister kicked off a campaign in the ruling party yesterday to oust him, saying the party has become a leaking ship that needs to be fixed after its recent election debacle.
Razaleigh Hamzah, chairing a special divisional meeting of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), said weak leadership, corruption, arrogance and a lack of democracy in the party had led to the ruling coalition’s worst-ever election showing.
The party has become a “faulty ship that can sink anytime because its captain is weak and often hands the rudder to the crew,’’ the 71-year-old lawmaker and former finance minister said.
But he said party leaders are in denial because they refuse to listen to criticism and instead pin the blame on external factors.
“Don’t they realize that UMNO’s main flaw that led to the disaster ... is a weak UMNO leadership, including some UMNO ministers who don’t have a good personal and ethical track record,’’ Razaleigh told about 5,000 party members at the meeting in northeast Kelantan state.
He didn’t name anyone.
“We need to discuss the problems in our own house and find the true and right path to make ourselves better and prevent a situation that may become worse in the next general election,” Razaleigh said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also the party president, has rejected calls for him to step down following March 8 general elections, which plunged the party into its gravest crisis in history.
The party, the linchpin of the ruling National Front coalition, retained power in the polls but with only a simple majority in parliament. It lost its traditional two-thirds majority and, more significantly, lost five states to the opposition.
Abdullah, who claims to have the full support of his party, is to seek re-election as party president in December. Razaleigh, who plans to run against Abdullah, said UMNO is seen as a “Malay fanatical’’ party by non-Malays and as corrupt by its own Malay supporters. Malaysia has large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
Razaleigh reiterated calls for an open contest for the party leadership in December’s polls, saying strict nomination rules should be abolished because they are undemocratic and encourage vote-buying.
At present, a candidate must be nominated by 30 percent of the party’s 191 divisions, which is hard to achieve by someone not endorsed by the party leadership. The party president automatically becomes the prime minister.
“To save the party and make it more relevant, efficient, strong and progressive, democracy must be restored. The quota system must be abolished,’’ Razaleigh said.
Four other UMNO Cabinet ministers have also endorsed calls for the nomination quota to be removed, highlighting Abdullah’s weakening control over power in Malaysia.
On Tuesday, hundreds of UMNO supporters met in Kuala Lumpur to demand Abdullah resign over the election results.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in