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Mahathir embarrassed by dissent at home

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is expected to retain the presidency of his political party in polls next October, but defiance on his own home ground is embarrassing the premier, analysts say.china-bri

The United Malays National Organization (UMNO) will hold its triennial convention and elections between October 9 and 12 and Mahathir's position looks assured with the party having decided that he should not be challenged.

But the obeisance ends there.

Mahathir's difficulty in appointing a chief minister of his choice for his Kedah home state in north Malaysia, and other forms of defiance shown to him by UMNO, are raising questions over the credibility of his leadership, say analysts.

"The dissent in Kedah is a deliberate attempt to show the prime minister that he can't put his own house in order," said a political analyst.

The Kedah problem became visible last year after a landslide victory for UMNO and its allies in the National Front coalition government in April general elections.

In the elections, Mahathir had given Sanusi Junid, one of his staunchest UMNO supporters, a state assembly seat in Kedah, instead of his usual parliamentary post, intending to appoint him as chief minister when he won.

Sanusi was elected but various members of Kedah UMNO made clear their opposition by ensuring that Sanusi lost a key divisional post in the state in October.

Mahathir suffered another setback last month when 22 out of 25 assemblymen from Kedah said they would reject any move by the prime minister to replace present Kedah chief minister Osman Aroff with Sanusi.

The assemblymen later apologised to Mahathir for their action, which they agreed was against his prerogative. But they maintained that they did not want Sanusi, a former agricultural minister, as chief minister of Kedah.

Political watchers said Mahathir was expected to make an announcement on the Kedah appointment by Monday.

They believe that Affifudin Omar, a deputy finance minister, or Hamid Othman, a minister for Islamic affairs, might become chief minister for Kedah if Mahathir does not appoint Sanusi.

They said Mahathir was now buying time to decide the fate of Sanusi, who is also a long-standing political rival of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"It's very well to make all these manoeuvres but don't forget that the old man is an old fox," Razaleigh Hamzah, president of the opposition Spirit of 46, told Reuters in an interview.

Razaleigh, a former UMNO stalwart and trade and finance minister in Mahathir's cabinet, used to be one of the premier's confidants until he challenged him for the UMNO presidency in 1987.-Reuter