The Malay Action Front gathering held in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday was the strongest and most open challenge to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad leadership from within Umno since the Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah revolt in 1987, an opposition leader said today.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang said in a press statement that the Malay gathering at the Putra World Trade Centre was to regain lost Malay political support and to replace Mahathir.

"The question is how the MAF gathering held at the very inner sanctum of Umno headquarters ... had suddenly been transformed into the strongest and most open challenge to the Mahathir-Abdullah leadership," he said.

Lim also asserted that although Mahathir and his deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had claimed that Umno was not involved and never agreed to the gathering, it was common knowledge that the event would not have taken place without the blessings of the two leaders.

"Otherwise, a police permit would not have been issued to an unregistered and illegal society like MAF to hold the gathering in the very inner sanctuary of Umno headquarters at the PWTC," he added.

The gathering, with the theme "Malays will not perish from this earth" ( Tak Akan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia ), drew a crowd of 3,000, all Malays, 30 percent of whom were women.

Wake-up call

Yesterday, Umno supreme council member Shahrir Samad told malaysiakini that the gathering was a wake-up call to Umno and intended to communicate the views of the grassroots to the top leaders of party.

Sharir was among a group of Umno leaders dubbed Team B which challenged Mahathir's leadership in Umno in 1987 culminating in a close contest by Razaleigh against Mahathir for the party presidency.

This was followed soon after by an exodus of members out of Umno to form Semangat 46.

Semangat 46, which lasted about a decade, was involved in an opposition alliance trying to topple Mahathir before it dissolved itself, and most of the members returned to the Umno fold.