First crack appears in Malaysia's ruling party

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Dissidents in Malaysia's main ruling party formally opened hostilities with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Friday, demanding an urgent party meeting to discuss its poor performance in elections last month.
Abdullah's United Malays National Organisation, which has led the government since independence in 1957, suffered its worst-ever reverse at the March 8 poll, winning just over a third of seats in the federal parliament, less than the opposition.
The National Front ruling coalition, in which UMNO is the dominant partner, lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in four decades but retained a simple majority, enabling Abdullah to remain in power.
But an UMNO division led by party dissident Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah voted unanimously on Friday to call for a special general assembly to discuss "the direction of the party", state news agency Bernama said. It was the first UMNO division to do so.
"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," Tengku Razaleigh said in a speech to about 400 party delegates at the division meeting in the northeastern state of Kelantan.
Abdullah faces a possible party revolt, with Tengku Razaleigh offering to challenge the prime minister for the party presidency at the next general assembly, which is not due until December.
In Malaysia, the UMNO chief has always been chosen by the ruling coalition as prime minister.
Tengku Razaleigh's Gua Musang division also called for party rules to be changed to encourage a contested vote for the UMNO presidency and other top positions. Currently, a challenger needs to obtain nominations from at least 30 percent of UMNO's 191 divisions to be eligible to contest the presidency.
On Tuesday, hundreds of UMNO supporters met in Kuala Lumpur to demand Abdullah resign over the election results. The calls for his resignation have been led by former premier Mahathir Mohamad and Mahathir's son, elected MP Mukhriz Mahathir.
Mukhriz plans to contest for the leadership of UMNO Youth, possibly against Abdullah's son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin.

Reuters 2008