Barring a last-minute surprise, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will soon be announcing that he will not be contesting the position of Umno president, paving the way for his deputy, Najib Abdul Razak, to take over sooner than originally anticipated.

The writing is already on the wall for Abdullah, if leaked reports of the negative reaction among the Umno supreme council in a recent meeting are indicative. The question is no longer how he will exit the stage – he will go out with a whimper – but rather how a Najib administration would look like.

We expect it to be more decisive as well as more repressive, what with Dr Mahathir Mohamad's guiding hand featuring prominently, either explicitly or in the background.