Knowing the combative nature of Mahathir, he would not give up without a fight.But it certainly would not be easy for him this time as Abdullah is now more ready and prepared than ever.But Abdullah still have to face Mahathir because the man can still cause him some headaches as the adviser of Petronas.

 

The removal of Mahallel was inevitable if Pak Lah was serious about turning Proton into a competent and competative car manufacturer.Everyone knows that Mahaleel has been taking instructions directly from Mahathir.Mahathir will now find it difficult to influence Proton without Mahaleel.He may have to kiss and say goodbye to his last pet project during his long 22 years as the prime minister of Malaysia.

 

The day for Proton to clinch a deal with Volkswagen or other giants as major partners is now being fast-tracked. This must be done quickly while Proton is still holding some useful assets and substantial market shares(44% of the passenger cars).The Government must always keep the interest of Proton workers (about 100,000) and Proton's vendors at heart.

 

The open display of APs list holders may have embarassed Rafidah and at the same time saved some face for Mahathir.But such action would not help Proton in any way unless the AP system were to be removed all together. The

recent decision to make Hyundai, Kia, Fiat, Chevolet, Cheery and Mahindra more costly was not fair to Malaysian consumers, and certainly would not help Proton significantly in the long run.

 

And one can now see the possibility of  Abdullah transferring Rafidah to other ministry in maintaining UMNO's political equiliberium.We believe she would not be axed for the time being because she is still the chief of the party's women wing. And more importantly,  Abdullah still needs people like Rafidah to fight with the party forces represented by Mahathir.

 

We hope Abdullah can also revamp Petronas after taking care of Proton. The time has come for a national energy policy to help saveguard the interest of all Malaysians.

 

The long term contracts dealings and involvement in futures market on the part of Petronas during the Mahathir's era have proven to be flawed and costly to Malaysian economy. Malaysia will soon (in 5 years) become a net importer of crude oil according to both Najib Razak and Mustapa Mohamad.

 

The failed NEP should not be revived. It should not be revived because it was nothing more than just a vehicle to help UMNO-puteras. Many of them have become tycoons overnight but the rest of the Malays and other races in the country have not benefited much from the policy.

 

DAP' s Secretary General Lim Guan Eng has disclosed in one of his statements(www.dapmalaysia.org), that the latest United Nations Human Development (UNHDP) Report 2004 shows Malaysia has the worst income disparity between the rich and poor in South East Asia. The UNHDP Report 2004 shows the richest 10% in Malaysia controls 38.4% of our economic income as compared to our poorest 10% controlling only 1.7%.   

 

MCA president Ong Ka Ting and Gerakan Chief Lim Kean Yaik may have sounded hurt and dissatisfied with the outburst made by UMNO's youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein on the issue of NEP. But their statements must be viewed with a pinch of salt because both are facing (or may be facing)  competitions in their respective party elections.They would have been keeping quite if not for the pending party elections.One may also concludes that both Ong and Lim will keep their mouths shut once their party positions were being secured.To risk losing their ministerial posts for defending the rights of the communities which they claimed representing is simply not their characters.

 

We are expecting Abdullah to reshuffle his Cabinet soon after his return from South Africa.He should not drag his feet for too long. He must remove some deadwoods and corrupt members in his oversized Cabinet.

 

Abdullah cannot justify to have six ministers in his Prime Minister department. He has also yet to justify paying ministerial remunerations to the Education Envoy and the Advisor on Islam.He should know who were the deadwoods and corrupt ones we were referring to.

 

Abdullah should also turn his eyes to the state leaderships. People like Khir Toyo, Adnan Yakcop and Abdul Ghani are nothing but real embarrassment to his administration.How could he continue to work with such incompetent leaders?

As a prime minister, he must not behave as if he has nothing to do with the sins and crimes committed by his bunch of chief ministers.

 

Abdullah should also know that many Malaysians were very disappointed with him when he played to the gallery on the issue of NEP when he made his closing speech at the UMNO assembly. How could he reconcile betwen continuing with the ethnic-biased poicy and still be fair to all other races? Such contradictory stance could only help to cause more Malaysians to lose faith in this country and may even force some of them to vote with their feet.