Badawi refuses to budge on leaving! (ref. malaysiakini)

After the much anticipated UMNO meeting last night (Malaysiakini's report here), where the PM was expected to be pressured by his cabinet members, led by Muhyiddin to quit, nothing much happened. The Malaysian Insider carried this report yesterday:

OCT 20 -When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi chairs the Umno Supreme Council meeting tonight, he will make it clear that he will not succumb to another "groundswell'' and leave office before March 2009.

Over the past few days, the Prime Minister has been assessing the comments being made by several Umno leaders about the long campaign period for the party elections and has concluded that it is part of another campaign to get him to revisit the transition plan.

He has told government and party officials that he will not budge until the reforms he outlined on October 8 are completed.

A government official told the Malaysian Insider: "The PM did not want to contest the party elections because he feared that it would cause a split. He was willing to listen to his deputy and did not challenge supreme council members when they said that there was a groundswell against him. But based on what he has been telling some of us, he will not be accommodating any more.

"If some people persist with trying to push him out, the transition will become very messy. What can you do to push out a sitting PM? Have a no-confidence vote in Parliament against him? Can Umno afford a snap election?''

Abdullah is prepared to hardball because he believes that those who want him out earlier are driven by insidious motives - they want to prevent him from setting up the Judicial Appointments Commission; the

Anti-Corruption Commission and the tribunal for enforcement agencies and want him to be remembered as a failure.

He views a recent call by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for Umno members to reject those associated with him as part of the plan to purge the ruling party and government of his influence.

The first draft of the anti-corruption commission was discussed in Cabinet on Friday and subject to a few amendments, is likely to be tabled in Parliament soon. Abdullah is expecting resistance from several Umno ministers when the draft bill on the Judicial Appointments Commission is presented to Cabinet.

A few of them have told their supporters that they will block the setting up of the commission, believing that it will usurp the powers of the prime minister to control an important institution.

The issue of reforms will be the main item at tonight's supreme council meeting. Former Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, who was given the task of charting the new course for Umno, is expected to present some of his findings and his suggestions at the meeting.

Anyone smell some ulterior motive?

Whut?

Did I hear something?