exclusive Replacing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be a difficult task as there is a dearth of capable and visionary leaders in Umno, said veteran journalist A Samad Ismail.

However, he is confident that Mahathir's present deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, "will grow into his job" once he becomes prime minister.

"Abdullah has to introduce new innovative ideas like Mahathir, but he will manage as PM," Samad told malaysiakini in an interview two days before he was sacked as New Straits Times's editorial adviser.

On Saturday, malaysiakini reported the shock termination of three top NST editors, including Samad, who is popularly known as Pak Samad.

"Abdullah is like Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. In the beginning, they said Goh was not fit, very shy, not a good orator. Now people are more used to his presence than former leader Lee Kuan Yew."

The 77-year-old chain-smoking Samad, however, said that Abdullah must wait a little longer to become the country's leader as Mahathir will not be stepping down soon.

Samad was brought into NST by the former finance minister Daim Zainuddin about a year ago, but was dismissed last Friday as a result of what appeared to be an internal political changeover in the media group.

PAS extreme

The frail-looking Samad, who was also co-founder of the People's Action Party in Singapore in 1954, added that opposition party Keadilan must not rely only on the Anwar Ibrahim issue.

The former deputy prime minister was sacked in 1998 and is currently serving a 15-year sentence for corruption and sodomy.

"Everybody wants to know what kind of society you want to set up. So Anwar is not everything," he said.

Samad also dismissed any possibilities of PAS coming to power in the next general elections, scheduled to be held before 2004.

"PAS alone cannot come to power. Their members tend to be extreme that even the Malays are scared. The Malay middle-class are very influential and they, along with the non-Malays, wanted stability."

He predicted that PAS could maintain its power in Kelantan and Terengganu and may make inroads in Kedah, adding that a strong and united Barisan Alternatif opposition front, at best, could reduce the majority of the ruling Barisan Nasional government.

"(But) even that the opposition coalition itself is now in trouble. They don't see eye-to-eye."

The former three-time ISA detainee, who was arrested over his alleged involvement with communism, also had harsh words for the present student activists, labelling them as being "mentally lazy" and individuals with "political consciousness but are politically illiterate".

"You must free yourself from prejudices. Then you can learn. They are the future of the country," he lamented.