KUALA LUMPUR, 13 Oct 2008: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today called on Umno members to give their support to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the new Umno president in the party election in March.
“I want Datuk Seri Najib to succeed me, I want all party members to give their support to him and I believe he can be a good leader,” he told reporters here.
The Prime Minister, when met after delivering his keynote address at the US-Islamic World Regional Forum, also said that he was happy with the decision made by the 28 Umno divisions, that have held their respective delegates meeting so far, to nominate Najib as party president.
“Of course I should be happy because people are supporting him. That’s very good,” he said.
To a question on the allegation by a news portal that Najib had abused his power and interfered in the investigation on the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, Abdullah said he did not believe Najib had abused his power.
“I can’t believe Datuk Seri Najib wants to abuse power, if he’s the one who is inclined to abuse power then how could he be my successor.
“I believe in him, I believe he’s a good person and he would be a good prime minister and would be able to provide good leadership, so I can’t believe he would be involved in the abuse of power,” said Abdullah.
Among others, the report carried by Malaysia-Today detailed what it alleged was an exchange of text messages between Najib and Datuk Shafee Abdullah, the lawyer who represented Abdul Razak Baginda before the political analyst was charged with abetting two police officers in the murder of Altantuya. — Bernama
