Name: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Age: 63 Nationality: Malaysian Claim to fame: Malaysia’s new PM
Known as ‘Mr Nice Guy’, he is going to have to move cautiously and should not be in a hurry to take any step that will make him unpopular both at home and abroad.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia’s new Prime Minister and the fifth since independence from Britain in 1957, has to prove himself, particularly to his countrymen, that he is strong and capable enough to succeed his ex-boss, Mahathir Mohamad. And given the reverence many Malays feel towards Dr Mahathir for turning Malaysia from a British colonial backwater into an Asian tiger economy, and one of the Muslim world’s few successful democracies, Badawi finds himself faced with an extremely hard act to follow.
In his first few speeches since, Abdullah Badawi has pledged to maintain his country’s tough stance on terrorism and has been careful enough not to refer, even in passing, to claims by his predecessor about Jews, talk that had sparked a global storm of Western criticism in the final weeks of Mahathir’s 22-year rule.
Abdullah is considered milder than the provocative ex-PM. With a self-effacing, consultative style, he is not expected to make any radical changes to Mahathir’s economic and social policies, at least in the short term. However, nations that have been subject to Mahathir’s tough rhetoric in the past — such as the US and Australia — are hoping that some of the previous government’s harsher edges will be smoothed.
A career politician, Badawi belongs to a prominent family from the northern state of Penang, with his father being a founding member of Umno, the party that sealed Malaysia’s independence from colonial power Britain and is still the country’s dominant force. He entered politics following his father’s death, being elected to parliament in 1978 and quickly rose to prominence, holding the jobs of minister of education and defence, before being appointed foreign minister in 1991. In 1999 he was made deputy prime minister after Anwar Ibrahim, the man who held the job previously, was sacked and jailed for 15 years on different charges. Perhaps realizing the precariousness of the deputy prime minister’s position — Abdullah was the fourth person to hold the post under Dr Mahathir — he took care to limit his profile and measure his words. This surely helped him stay in Mahathir’s good books and was finally handed over the post that Mahathir had held onto firmly for so long.
However, analysts doubt that Abdullah, widely known as Pak Lah (Uncle Lah), will remain the moderate “gentleman”, as he is popularly seen, once he becomes prime minister. General elections are due next year. These will be seen as Abdullah’s first test as premier. And if Mr Abdullah fails to match the expectations, he could be quickly challenged for the leadership from within Umno, though his main opposition comes from the hardline Islamic Party (PAS) which wants to turn moderate Malaysia into a strict Islamic state complete with punishments such as amputations and stoning to death.
Known as ‘Mr Nice Guy’, he is going to have to move cautiously and should not be in a hurry to take any step that will make him unpopular both at home and abroad.
