How the battle to topple Abdullah Badawi began

 

Khairy Jamaluddin, son-in-law of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, blocked an attempt by Mukhriz Mahathir, son of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to call for Abdullah’s resignation.

PETALING JAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin’s team blocked an effort by Mukhriz Mahathir to call for the resignation of Khairy’s father-in-law, then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, shortly after Barisan Nasional suffered heavy losses in the 2008 general election, according to a new book on BN’s fall from power.

Calls for Abdullah’s head had grown loud from his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Tensions were already frayed between the pair, in large part due to Abdullah’s unwillingness to continue a number of Mahathir approved mega-projects and Mahathir’s rebuke of Khairy and the “Fourth Floor boys” who were influencing Abdullah’s decisions.

In the days after the election results, AFP journalist Romen Bose, who would later become Najib Razak’s political communications consultant, said he received a call from the press secretary to Mukhriz Mahathir, son of Dr Mahathir.

Romen Bose.

The press secretary informed him that Mukhriz would be making a “very important statement” at a Penang hotel the next day.

“(His press secretary) said he understood that Mukhriz would be one of the first top Umno leaders to call for Pak Lah’s resignation and that this was sure to lead to a flood of other leaders demanding their pound of flesh,” Bose wrote in his book “Final Reckoning: An Insider’s View of the Fall of Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional Government”.

He said he found a tense scene at the Mukhriz event, held at a hotel in Seberang Perai, with many of those in attendance eyeing each other suspiciously.

“It was clear that there were two separate factions present and it looked like a showdown was imminent,” Bose wrote.

Then, he learned that Mukhriz, who was initially reluctant to hold the press conference, had moved it to a different hotel.

“(His press secretary) said the reason there were so many people at the hotel earlier was that it was not only Mukhriz and Mahathir supporters who had turned up.

“He said Khairy had found out about the press conference and that Mukhriz would be demanding that his father-in-law step down as prime minister and that Khairy would not allow this to happen,” Bose wrote.

Bose said he was informed that Khairy had ordered his supporters in Umno Youth to disrupt Mukhriz’s press conference “at any cost”.

Amid fears of violence breaking out, Mukhriz reportedly changed the location of the press conference a number of times in an attempt to evade “Khairy’s boys”.

“In the end, Mukhriz did hold the press conference. However, he did not openly call for Pak Lah’s resignation. Given the threat of violence hanging over the event, it was obviously the wiser course.

“A day later, Mukhriz wrote a public letter to Pak Lah, officially urging him to step down. The battle to topple Pak Lah had begun,” Bose wrote.

Those who were against the prime minister would eventually get their wish.

Following an Umno Supreme Council meeting where Abdullah announced his decision to step down, former science technology and innovation minister Jamaluddin Jarjis told Bose what Abdullah would receive in exchange for his resignation.

“Jamaluddin revealed that Pak Lah and his wife would get Tunships, along with a sizable plot of land next to Carcosa Seri Negara in Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens and a few other items.”

A month later, in July 2008, Abdullah announced that he would step down in just under a year’s time, which paved the way for Najib to succeed him. -FMT

Excerpts published with permission from Penguin Random House SEA.