Former Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad today announced that he was quitting Umno with immediate effect and urged other members to follow him. He said he was quitting the party , which he had led for almost 22 years until handing over the reins to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2003, as a sign of no confidence in his successor's leadership. "I will only come back to the party when there is a change in leadership," the ex-premier told a crowd at a forum in his home state of Kedah this morning.
He also called on all Umno ministers, deputy ministers and all levels of party leaders to join him in quitting the party.
However, he asked these members not to join other political parties.
"Wait till Abdullah quit as the prime minister and party president and then we can return to Umno," he said.
Mahathir dropped the bombshell during his speech at the 'The Position of Malays post-12th General Elections' in Alor Star.
His resignation appears to be part of his strategy in upping the ante in his bid to force Umno president Abdullah to step down in the wake of the ruling coalition's worst electoral setback in the March 8 polls. "I will not ask others to do something that I dare not do. "I would rather do it myself first before calling on others to quit party," Mahathir, who was the country's fourth prime minister between 1981 and 2003, told journalists after speaking at the forum.
In an immediate response, Mahathir's close ally Sanusi Junid, the former mentri besar in Kedah, also announced his decision to quit the party.
Tun Dr. Mahathir has once again up the ante on Abdulah Badawi. A typical and not surprising move by the master strategist. We can love him or hate him but one thing is for sure, no one can deny that he is one smart "ex-politician".
Will this trigger mass resignation among the UMNO rank and file? That we will know in the days to come.
One thing for sure, I predict other vateran UMNO members allied to Tun will follow suit since they really have nothing to loose (since they are already out of politics). But if senior cabinet ministers and state UMNO leaders starts resigning too then we might see the formation of a new government or snap elections being called.
Will Badawi step down? Somehow I don't think he would.
One things for sure, Anwar Ibrahim will be smiling eye to eye right now.
Times running out for Badawi and maybe the BN as a whole.
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