Malaysia's embattled PM confirms will step down
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's embattled PrimeMinister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirmed on Friday he wouldstep down, just three months after winning office, ending aleadership crisis sparked by the coalition's worst everelection result.
Abdullah, who had been widely expected to hand power to hisanointed successor, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, howeverdid not spell out the timing of the transition.
"Datuk Seri Najib and I have decided on the right time forme to hand over the premiership to him. We have no problems andwe enjoy good working relations," state news agency Bernamaquoted Abdullah as telling government officials in thenortheastern state of Kelantan.
"The leadership change will definitely take place at theright time," he added.
Uncertainties about when Abdullah would hand over power toNajib, together with a steep rise in fuel prices, have raisedMalaysia's political risks in investors' eyes, analysts say.
Abdullah has faced mounting public anger since ordering asteep increase in fuel prices in line with a global surge inoil prices, which touched a record $139 a barrel last week. Themeasure will drive Malaysia's inflation rate to a 10-year highof 4.2 percent in 2008.
But on Friday, a protest opposition supporters hoped woulddraw 20,000 people managed to draw only several hundred.
"Down with PM, long live the people," the protesters,mostly young Malays, shouted as they left a mosque in a poorpart of Kuala Lumpur after noon prayers and headed to theiconic Petronas Towers in the city centre to underline angeragainst the state energy giant.
The protest ended peacefully after police prevented theactivists from marching to the city centre and they dispersedat the headquarters of the Islamist opposition party PartiIslam SeMalaysia (PAS) party, one of the organisers.
"The people are angry. They say the fuel price is very highso they want to say something," said Safarizal Saleh, a leaderof the youth wing of the PAS.
There are tight curbs on public rallies in Malaysia, andahead of the rally police warned they would arrest anyonetaking part. Hundreds of riot police watched the protesters.
"The voters think it's just an opposition ploy ...exploiting an international issue as a national issue," saidpolitical analyst Shamsul Amri Baharuddin about the small sizeof the protest. "They flopped."
"NOT ABOUT BADAWI OR NAJIB"
Abdullah's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) isthe backbone of the Barisan Nasional, which has ruled Malaysiasince independence from Britain in 1957.
"It's important for everyone to see the relationshipbetween me and Najib as very crucial to strengthen UMNO and thegovernment and to implement the development projects andprogrammes that have been planned," Abdullah said on Friday.
But opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, campaigning to oustthe government and promising to lower oil prices if he takespower, said on Friday his struggle would continue even ifAbdullah quit.
"It is not individual. It is not about Abdullah Badawi orNajib Razak. It is about the system," he said in Dubai.
An analyst said Abdullah was unlikely to step down anysooner. "It's all mere talk. He made that statement in order tosoothe the feelings of people who feel that he should give theleadership to a new person," political analyst Yahya Ismailsaid.
Even before the fuel hikes, Abdullah's popularity had beenfalling with voters unhappy over racial and religious tensions,rising crime and failure to honour a pledge to fightcorruption.
Malaysia joined India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka inraising pump prices last week, provoking a public outcry in theoil producing country. Soaring global fuel costs have triggeredstrikes by truckers from Thailand to Spain.
(Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage in Kota Baru andLin Noueihed in Dubai; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing byJeremy Laurence)