15/12: What now, Pak Lah?

Portrayed as weak and indecisive, M'sian PM needs to act now before 2009 polls

Leslie Lau
TODAYonline

THERE is little doubt among many Malaysians that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will lead his ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to another victory at the next general election, whenever he decides to call it.

Rather, the question is whether Mr Abdullah, 68, will stay a second full term as Premier or make way for a new leader.

The atmosphere in the PM's office in Putrajaya now is very different from when he took office in 2003.

Then, he was a breath of fresh air to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's dictatorial, sometimes oppressive, administration.

Mr Abdullah vowed more democratic space, less corruption and a more efficient civil service.

Relief at finally seeing the back of "old man" Mahathir, the country voted in Mr Abdullah's BN government in March 2004 with the biggest majority in Malaysia's history.

Yet, just three years on, the offices of the most popular government in Malaysia's history are beginning to look like a bunker, under siege from all fronts.

It is facing dissent on the streets and even from within the ruling party. It faces criticisms of practising the kind of corrupt politics it had set out to remove.

The administration is also fighting a losing battle against a perception, fast gaining traction, that it is weak, indecisive and lacks any dynamic vision for the country.

Just months before Mr Abdullah took office, his son-in-law and aide Khairy Jamaluddin acknowledged in a private meeting with foreign journalists that the new administration would face major hurdles because it did not have a story to tell.

The story of Mr Abdullah's administration so far is vague, having failed to seize the initiative of his initial popularity to introduce drastic reforms necessary for Malaysia.

Even his singular contribution to the Malaysian lexicon, Islam Hadhari - a so-called gentler philosophy of the religion as opposed to the contention that Islam is a religion of terror - has become a subject of ridicule.

The battle on corruption is also looking like a whitewash so far, apart from the convictions of a few senior civil servants and investigations initiated against a few prominent personalities - with no results in sight.

"The problem for the PM is that his promised reforms never came," a senior Member of Parliament (MP) from Mr Abdullah's Umno party told Weekend Xtra.

Perhaps, Mr Abdullah is looking at history to avoid the mistakes of one of his predecessors, Mr Hussein Onn, who took the kind of drastic steps that some critics are now calling for.

Mr Hussein was the last PM and Umno president who took on, and saw through the jailing for graft of a major political warlord in his own party - Mr Harun Idris, Umno Youth chief and Selangor's Mentri Besar, who was charged with corruption in 1976 and jailed in 1978.

But the battle with Mr Harun weakened Mr Hussein to such an extent that the latter had to give way to Dr Mahathir, his deputy then, in 1981. Dr Mahathir promptly got Mr Harun a royal pardon and a release from jail.

The one thing Mr Abdullah does not want to become is a Mr Hussein.

"History has shown that if you try drastic steps, you get toppled," said the Umno legislator. "The PM offered so much promise … people may still forgive him because of the so-called honeymoon period. But the focus in his second term will solely be on his weaknesses."

Mr Abdullah's biggest weakness so far is probably his failure to define his own administration, which could largely be due to the fact that - just like what happened in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union - some Malaysians are nostalgic for the certainty of the Mahathir era.

This nostalgia and the PM's attempts at fixing and reversing some of his predecessor's mistakes sparked the past year's immense friction and clashes between Dr Mahathir and himself.

The constant sniping from the former premiere was a severe distraction for Mr Abdullah. Through public attacks, Dr Mahathir and his supporters shaped the public image of Mr Abdullah as weak and indecisive.

Yet, many will look back and realise that Dr Mahathir never really tried anything drastic to reform the party or the country. Arguably, it was under him that Malaysia became more corrupt.

But Dr Mahathir was shrewd in not taking drastic steps to change Umno. His moves were always calculated, and he was aware that a challenge to the status quo could result in his being toppled.

The one exception was when he took on Mr Anwar Ibramin, and the outcome of the tussle has left him bruised and battered - his legacy forever tainted.

Over the past weeks, Mr Abdullah has tried to put on a tough guy image to show more decisive leadership.

He has sent out the riot police, hauled street demonstrators to court and gone through with his threat to use the Internal Security Act to arrest leaders of Hindraf.

His biggest concern must be the possibility of a backlash from the Malays, but it looks like he has bought some time with them. And time is something he has, especially since his government need not go to the polls until 2009.

If he can use this time to tackle decisively the old issues of corruption and civil service efficiency and new ones like problems with the Indian community, then Mr Abdullah might still have a chance in the post-election period.

Leslie Lau has been reporting in Malaysia for more than 15 years. He has worked in regional and international newspapers and TV stations.