NAJIB SHAKES: 5,000 UMNO BRANCHES TO HOLD MASSIVE RALLY TO OPENLY DEMAND HIS RESIGNATION

UPDATED KUALA LUMPUR - As many as 5,000 Umno branch leaders are planning to hold a mammoth rally to protest the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also their party president.

"We are confident of the support of over a quarter of Umno branches nationwide," Mohd Isa Mohd Yasin, the head of the Umno Taman PD Utama branch was reported as saying by Malay news portal Sinar Harian.

"Our actions are not motivated by any party, but upon the realization that the right to voice out in Umno must be returned to the rightful leaders, and these are the branch leaders who are the party's grassroots so that Umno can be saved."

The protest is to be held next month. However no venue has been fixed.

Out of control corruption and kleptocracy

Umno is Malaysia's largest political party with some 22,000 branches nationwide. It has ruled ruled Malaysia since 1957. It's performance has been widely and frequently questioned, with massive and chronic corruption among its top leadership pushing Malaysia into the top 5 countries in the world with the highest amount of illicit outflows of money.

Per population, Malaysia actually beats China as the country with greatest amount of corrupt leakage and over the past year, Najib's brainchild investment fund 1MDB has hogged the international and domestic spotlight for alleged money laundering and criminal breach of trust. Najib himself has been reported to be under investigation in several countries, as well as by the the U.S. FBI for alleged kleptocracy.

The 1MDB controversy has spurred many quarters with the Umno-led government, as well as from the Opposition, to demand his ouster. Najib had instead responded by sacking his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin from the Cabinet as well the Attorney General Gani Patail, who by law is the only civil servant with the authority to order the arrest of a prime minister.

No one believes in Najib anymore?

At a meeting held on Saturday, Mohd Isa was among the 34 Umno branch chairmen from 5 states - Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Johor, Perak and Sabah - to openly state their stand against Najib.

According to Mohd Isa, the anti-Najib movement in Umno was growing and they already had the support of almost 5,000 branch leaders from around the country and plan to hold a massive rally late next month on his replacement.

He said the branches had unanimously agreed to urge Najib to step down as President because they had lost confidence in him and his cohorts. During the transition of power from former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to Najib, they had given their full support to the latter and had placed 'high hopes' on him, Mohd Isa added.

"However, what happened today was not as expected and already many are skeptical of the party," Mohd Isa told the press conference.

"Through this meeting, we want the party not to take any disciplinary action against the deputy president, vice president, head of a branch or any Umno member who appears to be making criticism against the party."

Wily Mahathir working quietly behind the scenes

Indeed the momentum against Najib seems to be building instead of abating, despite the enormous care taken by his minders to portray an aura of political invisibility through the government-controlled media and the use of iron-fist measures including unjustified arrests of critics and the arbitrary shutdown of critical websites and blogs.

Last month, a total of 13 Umno branch heads from Telok Kemang had held a similar press conference to demand Najib's resignation. They were followed by 10 Umno branches from Selangor, which made similar demands on Wednesday.

Apart from sacking Muhyiddin, Najib had also fired Sabah leader Shafie Apdal, who is also an Umno vice president. Muhyiddin, while sacked as the Deputy Prime Minister is still Umno deputy president and there is an ongoing move by the Najib camp to allegedly suspend him and several others for 'disloyalty to the party'.

Former premier Mahathir Mohamad is among Najib's harshest critics. The former strongman still wields significant influence and despite Najib consolidating his hold on power by clamping down on rivals, threatening Opposition leaders with sedition and jail, and blocking websites, news portals and blogs that criticized him and his handling of the 1MDB corruption debacle, savvy observers have predicted the wily Mahathir may still emerge victor in the Umno tussle for power.

Iron hand and snap GE

There is now speculation that Najib may take advantage of the disarray in the Opposition bloc and call for snap elections to thwart his Umno foes.

"Whatever Najib does, it won't stop his ouster. Simply put, Najib has committed too many wrongdoings and his fall is inevitable. His supporters point at Mahathir but is Mahathir still PM? Mahathir quit in 2003 because he too had been corrupt and oppressive. If Mahathir hadn't quit, he would have been kicked out like what is happening to Najib now," a political source told Malaysia Chronicle.

"The difference is, Mahathir was smart enough to know when to go and how to wipe his mouth clean. Najib on the other hand has been a greedy and sloppy eater. Resigning is already too kind a fate for him." - Malaysia Chronicle