While the newly elected Permatang Pauh MP Anwar Ibrahim is going to be sworn in later as the MP as well as the new Opposition Leader, one of my predicament for Umno is already taking place.

Implosion within the party rallying for the resignation of their president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is already making their demand heard by the party members.

Aspiring presidential candidate Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah called for a new leadership "to unite our people… and forge a clear national direction."

Mukhriz Mahathir, who is vying for the top spot in the party’s influential youth wing, also called for Abdullah’s immediate resignation.

However, the most strident salvo comes from no other than Pak Lah’s predecessor Tun Mahathir Mohamad when he asked Umno members to desert his handpicked successor or BN risks losing big time in the next General Election.

"When the 13th general election looms, the people will remove Umno and Barisan because it is the only way they can remove Abdullah… because Umno and Barisan is unwilling to act, the people would have to act," he said.

Nevertheless, Pak Lah is unperturbed although the calls for him to step down to make way for the new leadership as he is still confident that 140 parliamentary seats won in the last GE still commanded strong support from the people and the result in the Permatang Pauh by-election can’t be interpreted as a trend that can happend in other constituencies.

Call it ignorance or whatever you’d like to describe the PM, the landslide victory by PKR is going to hasten his visit from the party together with his deputy Najib Tun Razak even prior to the agreed handover plan which is expected to take place around mid-2010, that also provided that the imminent September 16 plan for a New Malaysia by the Pakatan Rakyat coalition is not going to work.

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