Lawmakers rally behind PM Badawi
Lawmakers from the ruling UMNO closed ranks behind Malaysia's prime minister yesterday, while the son of former premier Mahathir Mohamad also ignored his calls for members to follow him in leaving the party.
Mahathir had resigned from the party on Monday in an attempt to force his handpicked successor to quit, saying he would not return to the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) until Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi left office.
Mahathir's move sparked talk of mass resignations from UMNO by his supporters and fears of political turmoil, but Malaysia's domestic trade minister said after a special meeting between MPs and the premier that no party members were resigning.
"Nobody is moving out of UMNO... none of us is leaving UMNO," said Shahrir Samad, after the meeting attended by 73 out of 79 UMNO lawmakers.
One minister criticized Mahathir's move as blackmail.
"Nobody, no matter how big he is, can use dirty tactics to bring down somebody who is democratically elected," said Minister in the Prime Minister's office, Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The former premier's son, Mukhriz Mahathir, who is a lawmaker with UMNO, said later yesterday he will not quit the party, dealing another blow to his father's bid to oust the Prime Minister. But Mukhriz echoed his father's call for Abdullah to step down.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/21/2008 page24)
