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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Sept. 17 yielded his position as finance minister to his deputy, Najib Razak (in exchange for the latter’s post as defense minister), and said for the first time that he might leave office before his previously set date of June 2010. The same day, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) became the first to defect from Abdullah’s 14-party Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government. Both developments came shortly after news emerged that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is planning to rejoin the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in order to continue his bid to oust Abdullah from it.
External and internal pressures on Abdullah to step down have finally come to a head, and his days as UMNO leader and prime minister are numbered.
Although the SAPP’s defection was expected and the party held only two of BN’s 140 seats in parliament, fears that its official defection could trigger others are valid , as most of the challenges Abdullah faces come from one source: his rival and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
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