Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's unopposed ascendancy to Umno deputy presidency and the election of Najib Tun Razak as vice-president with the highest number of votes will create tension in the future development of Umno politics.

This deputy presidency of Umno and hence the country's DPMship earned by Badawi was at the initiative of PM Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to have the second position in Umno uncontested leading to Abdullah Badawi's popularity been untested, say some non-Umno politicians.

Since Abdullah Badawi did not face any contest, his position was not legitimately endorsed by the delegates while Najib's victory by overwhelming delegates' support ensured his legitimacy, according to James Wong Wing Onn, senior writer of Sin Chew Jit Poh and former DAP member of parliament.

Abdullah Badawi needed a contest via the democratic system for legitimacy to claim himself as the successor to Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Umno president, Wong told malaysiakini today.

"The unelected successor to a strong man (meaning Abdullah Badawi) would be challenged and he could become another Habibie (the former president of Indonesia who was soon replaced by Gus Dur)," he said.

However, Wong also pointed out that the highest number of votes won by Najibin the vice-presidency (VP) contest (1,289), compared with the wafer-thin margin he obtained during the last general elections for parliamentary seat of Pekan (241-vote majority over PAS opponent) showed the big discrepancy between Umno and the Malay/Muslim masses.

"These two election results of Najib highlight the Umno dilemma in future, the choice of the delegates may not reflect the need of the Malay/ Muslim masses," he said.

He stated that someone not popular in the Malay society might be elected because of the distortion factor.

"The distortion factor most probably is corruption, which deflects the wishes of the Malay society," he said.

Former Selangor MB Muhammad Taib, who polled 853 votes as second-ranked VP, is seen by the Malay society in general as having "some problem" (related to his "Down Under" case of bringing large sums of curencies into Australia), while Muhyiddin Yassin, another former MB, of Johore, considered less favorite compared with the current Mentei Besar Abdul Ghani Othman, created an upset by coming from behind to steal the third VP spot with 813 votes.

"Therefore the distortion factor that due to moral or material excesses may not reflect the real demand of the masses," he said.

Parti Rakyat Malaysia president Dr Syed Husin Ali said that outwardly both Mahathir and Abdullah Badawi welcomed the return of the "Wawasan team" of Najib, Muhyiddin and Muhammad Taib who were associated with former DPM Anwar Ibrahim in the 1993 Umno election, it did not reflect their "true feelings".

"I believe Dollah Badawi would see these three VPs as potential rivals as some were senior to him (Dollah) in previous VP contests in 1993 and 1996,and this will create strains within the top leadership in future," Husin said.

Husin also noted that none of the current MB - Selangor's Abu Hassan Omar, Johor's Abdul Ghani Othman, and Negri Sembilan's Mohd Isa Abdul Samad - made it as VP this time, proving that the traditional "trend" of ensuring a successful candidate from the MB ranks had "failed".

"Ghani tried too hard at the beginning to prove himself to be a Mahathir man (although he was aligned with Anwar once) and the delegates rejected this, with Muhyiddin even overtaking Ghani and Syed Hamid, also from Johore, despite having receiving very much less nominations," he added.

On the poor performance of Dr Rais Yatim, who polled the lowest of the nine VP candaites at 371, Husin said Rais on returning to Umno from Semangat 46 (along with its former president Razaleigh Hamzah), tried too hard to "replace" Ibrahim Ali in Mahathir's inner circle after a long absence.

Commenting on Muhammad Taib's victory, despite the "Australian incident" and the return of Rafidah Aziz as Wanita Umno chief (with Rafidah "tainted" by allotment of shares to her son-in-law's case), Husin said this was a "tragedy within Umno".

Both victors were tainted in terms of alleged "wrong-doings" and yet they won which reflected the "don't care" culture in Umno, Husin added.

Marina Yusof, a vice president of KeADILan, said that she did not expect any of the three newly-elected vice presidents will lead any kind of changes in Umno as they have to follow the leader's order.

However, she said that the victories of Najib, Muhyiddin and Muhammad Taib is not of the wishes of Mahathir and it proved that the delegates were not bound to the order of the leader all the time.

She said that one of the major factors that caused the return of Rafidah Aziz was that incumbent chief Siti Zaharah had taken action against Rafidah's supporters soon after Siti's victory three years ago, and did not help to close ranks in the party.

Rustam Sani, the spokeperson for Barisan Alternatif, said that for the people, the three vice presidents have not been seen as "really clean".

"Even as Mahathir urged for the rejection of the money politics, the results of the VP election may not really prove (the answer to the PM's call for) rejection of money politics," he said.

He pointed out that the lip-service of the president could not erase money politics which has become a "culture" in Umno.