Pak Lah comes in for belated kudos

 

From Terence Netto

It’s nice to see Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s premiership, viewed as hapless from certain standpoints, come in for some belated praise, even if in an oblique way.

The good things said about Malaysia’s fifth prime minister (from October 2003 to April 2009) appears in author Kee Thuan Chye’s just released second volume of his biography titled “Lim Kit Siang: Malaysian First”.

The narrative in the book on Abdullah’s reaction to the stunning losses suffered by Barisan Nasional in the March 2008 general election conveys the impression that the BN chairman possessed the fibre to take the rough with the smooth.

This was critical to the smooth handover of power in Penang, Selangor, Perak and Kedah where the opposition PKR, DAP and PAS, in combination, gained enough seats to form the state governments there.

All told, the results were the sort that, in most democracies, would have led to the swift ouster of the head honcho of the coalition that had hitherto held the main reins of power.

It didn’t in Abdullah’s case, but the reprieve was only temporary.

Thirteen months after the March 8, 2008 general election (GE12), the internal pressure in Umno stemming from the party’s need to find a scapegoat became too intense for Abdullah (fondly known as Pak Lah) to resist.

He gave in and his deputy, Najib Razak, took his place.

For Pak Lah, it was a humiliating sequence of events.

The effect of the electoral setbacks to BN, the baying for Pak Lah’s blood by predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and the pressure exerted by senior minister Muhyiddin Yassin, all combined to force the resignation of a beleaguered Pak Lah in early April 2009.

Mahathir was unhappy with Pak Lah for having made conditions amenable for the release of his nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, in August 2004 from prison where he was serving time on abuse of power and sodomy charges.

Muhyiddin had considerable rancour to discharge at Pak Lah for having been bypassed for the deputy premiership in January 2004 when Najib was named DPM to Pak Lah.

Pak Lah was waiting for a time after the fast-approaching GE12 followed by the also due internal elections of Umno to name a deputy.

He had taken over as PM from a retiring Mahathir in late October 2003 and was understandably playing for time to consolidate his position before making the DPM choice.

But Mahathir was exerting pressure from behind the scenes to have the DPM post given to Najib.

Muhyiddin was chagrined, not at Mahathir but at Pak Lah.

Wounded by the sequence of hapless circumstances, Pak Lah hid his hurt behind a façade of outward calm and retreated to the shadows.

This was in keeping with the advice he gave his defeated colleagues in BN who were beaten by opposition candidates in GE12.

Gentlemen must take the rough with the smooth, preferably with a stiff upper lip. - FMT

  Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.