E Contrario

Pak Lah’s 3rd year anniversary is like this train hanging half way in the air, off track… The LRT management says it is the fault of the driver…

Today Abdullah Badawi celebrates his 3 years anniversary as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. We can be quite sure that not many Malaysians are as enthusiastic as 3 years ago with Abdullah’s premiership. The mood in town now is mostly disappointment or disillusion. The standard feeling is that when he ascended to power, there was so much high hope on him to bring change to this country.

However I must confess I am not one of his fans. I had never expected Pak Lah bringing change to the system he inherited from Dr Mahathir. I anticipated he would come into conflict with Mahathir and Najib at some point. So far my predictions have been accurate. But there are still several things surprised me:

1. I had expected the new PM would at least make some attempts to reform, yet NOTHING has happened—from Police Commission, independent judiciary, free media, Suhakam, Anti Corruption Agency, academic freedom, campus autonomy, to economic restructuring such as reforms of GLCs, making Petronas more transparent, open tender…the list can go on and on. He is now not even pretending to push for reform.

2. I had expected Pak Lah to maintain a Mr Clean image as his trademark. To my greatest amazement, in less than two years not only he dropped the idea of cleaning up the system, he is joining the spoils. Although he tries to dodge his responsibility in many cases of corruption related to his family members, he could not pretend that he has no knowledge with their abuses of power.

3, I had also expected Pak Lah would use his power to remove some of the old deadwoods and old crooks loyal to the previous regime. When he arrested Eric Cheah, I thought Dolah would shoot down a few more. Rais Yatim announced 18 big fish, yet the fish that got demoted were straight-talkers like Rais, Shahrir Samad, etc. to date all villains retain their power and wealth. No risk of losing their jobs.

4, I never dreamt of Mahathir would attack Pak Lah so viciously. OK lah, gaduh-gaduh sikit must have lah, but to see such ferocious fight between the two, wow…

Looking at the language used by Mahathir, one can never imagine Abdullah was his handpicked successor. Pak Lah’s counter attack was not less spiteful. His ‘elegant silence’ toward Mahathir was in actually a cover for a highly manipulative maneuver to root out the ex-premier’s power base in Umno.

Mahathir is now playing a wild card. He vowed to unseat Abdullah (though he publicly denies this) by any means. Nobody is so naïve to think that the storm will simply go away. The struggle will get more intense. Mahathir represents the old forces in Umno that have been marginalized since Dolah took power. Many of Mahathir cronies have been sidelined and their interests replaced by the new rising cronies connected to Dollah’s family.

Mahathir is now playing a role of victim. Oppressed and humiliated by the power installed by him. He charges the new PM of many misdeeds: corruption, heavy-handed control of the media, using police for political intimidation, and so on.

The people in general find Mahathir amusing for raising these issues. Any one not recalling Mahathir past records might even revere him as a great freedom fighter. I must admit Mahathir’s criticisms are valid. He may not be a credible person to raise these issues, Dolah could not brush them aside. He could not pretend that by ignoring Mahathir, problem will go away. Neither he could expect he could rely on notorious past of Mahathir to retain his support.

If Abdullah Badawi had done something for the people he would enjoy solid support from the people. The people can judge and Mahathir’s threat will fizzle away. In the last 3 years, if Dollah had made some attempts to reform, he would have brought some hope to the people. He could be assured of Malaysians standing up defending him against criticisms from Mahathir.

Unfortunately Pak Lah wasted 3 years. Perhaps from his perspective, his efforts are worthwhile. Now his son is the richest young man in Malaysia. Scomi is growing at a fast pace. Khairy is now the most powerful politician with no official post. Pak Lah may be proud with all these achievements.

However for the rest of Malaysians, the 3 years of Abdullah Badawi has been a daunting journey. Many are disheartened, and many more are anxious what future would be under this clueless premier. I thought the recent rail accident is a perfect metaphor for the current regime. Dollah leadership is parallel to the train driver who crushed through the track. Well, we count ourselves lucky, no one got thrown off the train, no injured, no death, thank god, all passengers survive (for they got off the train earlier)!

We should pray hard that we will not get on the train with the same driver again.