Malaysia PM urged to resign as rift opens in party

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The son of former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad on Friday asked Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to step down from office following the ruling coalition's election debacle at the weekend.

Mukhriz Mahathir is the first figure from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to demand that Abdullah quit, although his father has also urged him to resign over the party's worst election setback in its 50-year rule.

Islamists and left-wing opposition parties won control of five of Malaysia's 13 state assemblies and just over a third of federal parliament, prompting speculation Abdullah would quit to take responsibility.

"If you do not resign in the near future, I fear the situation will become untenable and Malay support for UMNO and the coalition will be a thing of the past," Mukhriz said in a letter released to media on Friday.

Nazri Aziz, law minister in the pre-election cabinet and UMNO supreme council member, poured scorn on Mukhriz.

"It will be very irresponsible to leave now," Nazri told Reuters. "Being a responsible leader, he should make sure the party is strengthened. (Mukhriz) is a disgruntled young man. He is like a puppet. The father is controlling him."

PROTEST IN PENANG

In Penang, one of the states that fell to the opposition, hundreds of UMNO supporters gathered at the state government house to protest against the new regime.

New Chief minister Lim Guan Eng of the opposition Democratic Action Party said the state would scrap an affirmative action policy giving majority Malays preferences in jobs, housing, contracts, university places and stocks.

Hundreds of protesters, shouting "Long live the Malays" and "Don't push the Malays out of Penang" demonstrated for a half-hour until police asked them to leave.

The opposition is taking a crash course in how to govern, having spent decades as a tiny force in Malaysian politics.

After squabbling about how to share power in northern Perak state this week, the three-party opposition alliance finally signed an accord on forming a government there.

"This is a process of coalition forming that is part of democracy," People's Justice Party spokesman Tian Chua told Reuters on Friday. "We are learning it."

The public fuss over who would lead the Perak government led some to predict the alliance would not last long after it's impressive showing in Saturday's elections.

The National Front is having problems of its own.

Abdullah is expected to announce a much slimmer Cabinet only next week as he tries to realign his government to reflect the electoral performance of the 14 parties in his coalition.

Local parties in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, for instance, won 30 percent of the Front's seats in Parliament and may wield greater influence at the federal level now.

In northern Perlis, the Sultan of Perlis, titular ruler of the state, rebuffed Abdullah's choice of chief minister, which is almost unheard of.

"It's a decision of the palace, but I do not know why I have been dropped," Shahidan Kassim told Reuters. Another UMNO asssemblyman was appointed instead.

(Additional reporting by Niluksi Koswanage and Liau Y-Sing; Writing by Bill Tarrant; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)