There is growing dissent within the ranks of the PBB Youth wing sparked by its chief Fadillah Yusof's failure to condemn Umno Youth head Khairy Jamaluddin for asking Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to quit.

Fadillah's explanation of Khairy's call was seen as being vague and unimpressive.

NONE They have asked Fadillah ( right in photo ), who is also the deputy minister of science, technology and innovation, to rebuke the outspoken Khairy for his outburst.

Fadillah, however, remained defiant, saying that the Umno Youth chief had given his explanation on why he had made the call.

But unhappy branch Youth leaders want more - an apology from Khairy for his unwarranted and uncalled for remark.

So far 29 Youth branch leaders have expressed their unhappiness with Fadillah's leadership.

Outsider unknowingly opens door

Khairy was in Sarawak to drum up support for BN candidates in the recent state elections, but it did not stop him from calling on Taib to step down after 30 years in office.

The member of parliament for Rembau had commented in his microblogging Twitter feed that there should not be any delay in the transition plan.

He had stated that state BN leaders must adhere to the promise of power transition in the near future and there should be no reason to delay it.

NONE Khairy had posted a message that BN had suffered its greatest loss during the state election, despite the fact that the ruling coalition had won 55 out of the 71 seats.

PBB Kidurong branch Youth leader Jeffri John and his committee were the first to express displeasure with Fadillah resigning from his post on the eve of the April 16 polling day.

However, he later withdrew his resignation letter, but that did not stop the other Youth leaders from subjecting Fadillah to criticism.

PBB Youth sources said the branch Youth leaders critical of Fadillah's leadership are those who had proposed for Asayajaya state assemblyperson Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah to challenge Fadillah for his post at last year's party convention.

Spinning wheels within wheels

The ambitious Karim would have won the fight easily had it not been for Taib stopping him a day before the polling for the PBB Youth office bearers.

NONE Taib naturally did not want to see his "boy" beaten by a son of former PBB leader Abdul Rahman Hamzah ( left ), who had opposed his party leadership in the 1980s.

Taib's excuse was that Karim's victory over Fadillah would affect the balance of power in the Malay/Melanau wing of PBB. The other wing consists of the Dayak members, controlled by the party deputy president (1) Alfred Jabu Numpang.

It was Taib who put up Fadillah in Petra Jaya parliamentary in the 2004 general elections, despite the protests from PBB members aligned to PBB deputy president (2) Abang Johari Openg, who is also the state minister of housing and urban development and the minister of tourism and heritage.

They reasoned that Fadillah was an outsider as he is from Sibu.

Fadillah's father, Merais, who was known to Taib, was an activist jailed several times by the British.

Abang Johari had proposed his own man to contest in Petra Jaya, but was vetoed by Taib.

Karim's supporters had blamed Fadillah for not doing enough for the PBB Youth as he had devoted too much of his time to his ministerial work.

Any excuse will do

Sources said Fadillah's failure to condemn Khairy was a lame excuse to get rid of him, and replace him with Karim, who is also chief political secretary to chief minister.

Among those who had condemned Khairy was Kuching Youth leader Wan Hamzah Wan Paie who had said that the Umno Youth chief had no right to make the call and should stay out of Sarawak politics.

"You are obviously out of line in making such a demand," Wan Hamzah had said.

NONE He said the results of the recent state elections showed that the PBB members and supporters were still behind Taib by returning all the 35 seats the party was contesting.

"We welcomed those who helped us during the campaign but we don't compromise with those who did not respect the wishes by our voters," he said.

Newly-minted Belawai state assemblyperson Len Talif Salleh also stated that "outsiders" had no right to interfere with the internal affairs of PBB.

He wanted "friends" from other component parties to should show respect to each other, and not display their arrogance and ignorance in public.

He opined that there was a limit on what they should comment, especially concerning component party leaders.