FM CALLS FOR A RETURN TO THE "OLD UMNO" By Salmy Hashim

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Bernama) -- It is time for the top two positions in
United Malays National Organisation (Umno) to be contested to strengthen the
party's democratic process, Foreign Minister Dr. Rais Yatim said here Tuesday.

"Umno is in dire need of a strong democratic process and I belong to that
group where the (positions) of the president and the deputy president should be
challenged," he said after chairing a meeting of 13 heads of Malaysian missions
in the Americas at the Malaysian Embassy here.

"Any office should be subject to contests -- public office should not be
sacrosanct -- Umno should go through a process of reversion," back to the way it
was," he told Bernama in an interview.

The party's top two positions were off-limits to contests after the
bruising
fight in 1987 between then incumbent president Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku
Razaleigh Hamzah which saw the split of the party.

Tengku Razaleigh subsequently formed Semangat 46 and rode off with several
key members including Rais, only to return to the Umno fold in 1996. Umno is the
political party leading the ruling coalition (BN).

Rais, who said that he intended to contest for the post of vice-president
at
the party's general assembly in December, added that this "process of reversion"
within Umno was healthy for the party. If decisions were made by leaders only,
some repercussions were bound to happen but "if grassroots were given the
opportunity, then democratic values could be enhanced," said the Member of
Parliament (MP) for Jelebu.

He was, however, confident that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and
his deputy, Najib Razak, could ride out the "rough spot" in the country's
political storm. On Anwar Ibrahim's day in court to face a sodomy charge, Rais
said the People's Justice Party(PKR) advisor was going to court to face the rule
of law based on the Penal Code, and it had nothing to do with his political
ambitions.

"Unlike Europe and the United States, sodomy is a crime in Malaysia," he
said, responding to the harsh criticisms on the Malaysian government from the
Western countries.

Anwar, who is the People's Alliance de facto leader, had set Sept 16 as the
deadline to take over the government with his claim that more than 30 ruling
Barisan Nasional members had joined his party.

"His deadline has come and gone and this will cost him his credibility,"
said Rais.

On the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA), Rais said it was
important
that the ISA be re-evaluated to be aligned with the principles of human rights
with (regards) to justice, administration of law and jurisdiction of the court.

"We now have to re-look at the ISA to tackle the criticisms -- certain
aspects of ISA could be re-evaluated. Malaysia should no longer say we cannot
(review the ISA)," he added.