Malaysian opposition shrugs off defections to ruling party - AFP

Malaysia's opposition on Thursday shrugged off a rash of defections to the ruling party, which have come as a much-needed boost for embattled Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Ezam Mohamad Nor, a former senior member of opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan party, is the most prominent of the six who are being welcomed back into the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

He left UMNO in 1999 after the sacking of Anwar, a one-time deputy premier who spent six years in jail on corruption and sex charges before being freed and storming back onto the political scene.

Ezam, who had served as Anwar's political secretary, quit Keadilan last year reputedly after a power struggle with another top party official.

"Ezam's decision will have little impact on the party. We are on an upward trend now," said Keadilan information chief Tian Chua.

Chua said the five others joining UMNO were associates of Ezam who had been "hanging in limbo".

"A few of them have nowhere to go, and UMNO desperately needs some event to show that they can reverse the trend of people leaving and the relevance of UMNO waning," he told AFP.

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