Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today dismissed allegations that he would not honour his plan to hand over power to his deputy in March next year, stressing that the transition plan is on track.

Abdullah called such allegations rumours that should not be entertained.

bn supreme council abdullah announcement 081008 04 "Rumours are rumours. I have been the subject of rumours from the past. Macam-macam rumours they have thrown against me," he told a press conference at his office in Parliament today.

Speculation that Abdullah would not honour the transition plan first surfaced when former premier Mahathir Mohamad, a staunch critic of Abdullah, alleged in his blog that the latter would not step down as planned in March next year.

Mahathir claimed that although a transition plan has been set out and Abdullah's deputy Najib Abdul Razak is set to become the next Umno president, it does not necessarily mean that Najib can become the prime minister.

This is because if Abdullah does not get the support from within his own party as Umno president but can still maintain support from a majority of BN MPs in Parliament, he can retain his post as MP through his position as BN chairperson.

IJN privatisation not a selfish move

Meanwhile, Abdullah also commented on the government's decision to allow Sime Darby to acquire a stake in the national heart institute, IJN.

The prime minister denied claims that the take over was due to the government not being able to bear the costs of sustaining the hospital.

"It's not a matter of whether or not we can bear the costs. If there are interested parties that can enhance the hospital's performance and make it bigger, why not?

institut jantung negara ijn 181208 "If they can meet with our expectations, like the enhancement of facilities, I don't see anything wrong with it. We can always build other hospitals so that there will be more hospitals for the people," he said.

Various quarters have criticised the privatisation of the hospital, describing it as a selfish move by the government, who they claim is only concerned with making money.

Abdullah when asked about this said he could understand the concerns raised by these quarters but assured them that the government has thought through the decision seriously.

"There might be a few factors why certain quarters have disagreed with the idea as the institute is a government hospital and its facilities can be enjoyed by even those from the lower income bracket.

"This group must also be given medical attention so when the idea of privatisation came up, many assumed that they now have to pay more for medical attention," the premier explained, adding that the government has been assured that those from the lower income group will not be negatively effected by the privatisation exercise.

Abdullah said in order to be the best, hospitals must have state of the art technology and also the best medical experts, which were often costly.

The best solution to this, he said was to allow private companies that "are close to the government like Sime Darby" to take over.