Premier succession not a problem, unstable country fears unfounded, say analysts

comments     Kevin Tan     Published     Updated

There is no problem in finding a successor to fill Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's shoes should he decides to resign, political analysts say.

"The country needs a new prime minister," political scientist Prof P Ramasamy of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia told malaysiakini in a telephone interview today.

He said the country would not become 'unstable' as feared by certain quarters unless there were those who would take the opportunity to deliberately create mischief.

Certain quarters in Malaysia have expressed fear that Malaysia could whirl into political instability due to a power vacuum in Mahathir's absence. Some even see the prime minister's leadership as 'almost indispensable' to the country.

However, Ramasamy believes that the succession to Mahathir's premiership is a non-issue.

"Let's say Mahathir resigns, [deputy premier Abdullah Ahmad] Badawi will take over. The country will go on," he said.

"I don't think the politics of Umno then will be any different from now."

Mahathir had reiterated that Abdullah will replace him as the prime minister although he was perceived to lack the support base within the party to sustain him in power.

Orderly manner

When contacted today, Asian Strategic and Leadership Institute (Asli) chief executive officer Dr Michael Yeoh too concurred with Ramasamy's view that there was no succession problem.

The political observer said that although the succession process was in place, it should have been done in an orderly manner.

However, he also pointed out that Mahathir still has an 'unfinished agenda' as he had recently proposed or launched several programmes. These included reforms which will return meritocracy to the education system, the campaign against terrorism and preparing the country for the challenges of the globalisation movement.

"The timing [of the Mahathir's announcement] surprised a lot of people because it was not planned. It should be done with proper planning and at the right time," Yeoh said.

Mahathir dropped a bombshell on the nation by announcing his resignation from all his positions in the party at his closing speech in the Umno annual general assembly on Saturday.

The audience were stunned into silence for a few moments but when his message began to sink in, Abdullah and top Umno officials mobbed and pleaded with him to reconsider his decision. They brought him to a private room behind the podium. Many of the delegates were also in tears.

Abdullah, who is also Umno deputy president, returned to the stage an hour later to announce that Mahathir had agreed to retract his decision, to cheers from the 2,000 over delegates attending the AGM. There has been a flood of declarations supporting Mahathir's continuation as premier since then.

Change in style

Commenting on a post-Mahathir scenario, Yeoh said many of the country's policies were in place for the premier's successors to carry on the programmes.

"There might be a change in style but not in substance," he said.

However, Ramasamy said he was sceptical about the premier's announcement to step down.

"He could be emotional about it but have no intention about resigning in the foreseeable future," Ramasamy opined.

The political analyst attributed this to yet another of Mahathir's 'stunts', saying he had pulled similar stunts before in the past by crying in public though none had been as dramatic as the one last Saturday.

Ramasamy postulated that the premier knew his resignation was unlikely to be accepted as there was no strong challenger jockeying for his post.

"What he wanted to see is people to rally behind him. He got such an outcome that day itself," he said.



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