Mykmu Net, a popular Web site for ruling party members, published comments by readers who said they “hope (Abdullah) will be quickly ousted” and that Abdullah’s “resignation will be the only way out,” reported Bernama.com.

Abdullah has repeatedly resisted calls to resign immediately after the March elections, though he has pledged to hand power to his deputy, Najib Razak, by mid-2010 in a protracted transition plan publicly endorsed by most top government officials.

The PM has said that people should not see the Permatang Pauh by-election thrashing by Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as a trend that may happen nationwide. It is perhaps a miscalculation of the events by the PM since at least 2 top Umno elites said the results indicated otherwise.

Tungku Razaleigh Hamza who is challenging the PM’s post and International Trade Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the loss should not be taken lightly and that a strong message has been sent to the Umno for change.

“Our fear is that this may become a trend,” the Minister Yassin was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama.

He said BN and Umno should conduct a post-mortem and take steps to speed up Umno's reinventing process as well as measures to rebrand the BN with new approach more acceptable to the people.

According to him, this would require the BN and Umno to re-evaluate whether their approach to campaign was already "stale and no longer acceptable to the people."

"It is clear that we need to make swift changes to the organisation and to the way we do things," he said.

Muhyiddin added that the results also showed that the voters' mindset had shifted and that they now wanted something which "are fairer, not racial-based (politics) but one that is based on the profile of the multiracial and multi-religious Malaysians."

"Umno should be prepared to make the change," he said.

Muhyiddin said, however, that Anwar's victory was something to be expected and accepted as it was the wishes of the people, who made their choice under a democratic process.

"It may be that whatever is said about Anwar, the people and voters just refuse to believe it.

"The explanation given by our leaders was not accepted as though it was already decided from the outset that the BN would lose and PKR would win," he said. Razaleigh was quoted as saying the Umno is facing extinction if the Permatang Pauh trend was a national one. He added that it is the Umno that was sunken in the by-elections.

In 2007 after the Ijok by-elections, WorldFutures predicted that Anwar Ibrahim will sink the Umno and once again, our predictions came true.

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