Like it or not the outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi would be remember as the weakest, laziest, useless and the most indecisive PM this country ever had. From the start he doesn’t have the minimum quality, both academic and leadership, to become the PM. He was put on throne because the former dictator, Mahathir, who had ruled Malaysia with iron-fist for 22-years “thought” Badawi was the tamest breed of hamster pet he could ever afford to warm the seat temporarily before hand-over the premiership to the current deputy PM Najib Razak.

Little did Mahathir realize that his hand-picked hamster would bit his hand and ate his “cheese” while refused to stay temporarily as promised. What frustrated Mahathir more was when Badawi decided to play marbles with the Father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, a person Mahathir hates the most even to this day. Things got extremely ugly when Mahathir found out that Badawi was actually sleeping on the job and left the daily management of the country to a bunch of hippies led by his own son-in-law, Khairi Jamaluddin. Without grassroots support but yet was ambitious to become youngest Prime Minister before he reaches the age of 40, Khairi and his “4th Floor” boys were said to control almost every decision made by Badawi.

Abdullah Badawi – Rise of a Hero

Of course Abdullah Badawi had his glory moment when in 2004 he led the Barisan Nasional (National Front) to a landslide and historic victory with 90 percent of seats in the bag. It was the greatest victory ever. Four years later on Mar 2008 general election Abdullah again led the BN coalition party of 14 political parties. Only this time it was a spectacular disaster because not only the National Front lost five states inclusive of the most developed state of Penang and Selangor, the arrogant coalition also lost its treasured two-third majority in the Parliament. It was the greatest defeat ever. I guess not many world leader could claim such trophy. To be fair the 2004 victory was a direct result of people’s 22-year of unhappiness under Mahathir’s racists divide-and-rule scheme and the threat of fear using the draconian ISA on whoever that could threaten Mahathir’s iron-fist grip on power.

What Abdullah did was to add the slogan as the catalyst and the people were flocking to him as if he was God. Badawi’s promises for reforms were too good to believe yet that was what the people had been waiting for. The newly crowned king was so popular that a pathetic DJ (enough to say his name consists of two character) from 988 radio station was so obsessed that he immediately compared Badawi to China’s legendary Justice Bao (包青天). People were relieved that the country was finally free from the dictatorship and the feel good factor was on the air. Even the then opposition leader Lim Kit Siang was singing songs of praise for Badawi. Little did the 20-plus million populations realize that their nightmare had just begun. He was known as “Mr. Clean” so how bad could he be?

Abdullah Badawi’s journey to Zero

Hidden by the shadow of arrogance Abdullah Badawi thought he was invincible with the grand victory and he started to sleep on the job thinking he could fool the people all the time. Instead of surrounding himself with good advisors, Badawi chose to get close to shoe polishers. He thought his slogan should work forever and people won’t mind if he “sleeps a little”. In fact he was an empty vessel who happened to be there at the right time at the right place. Furthermore if he managed to fool the old-fox Mahathir, chances are he can fool almost everybody. Who cares if all he got was only Islamic Studies under his belt and can’t even articulate any idea, let alone vision, to the audience. Obviously he has zero knowledge in Economic 101. He was the King of Sloganeering after all and that’s enough to stay in power – at least that was what he thought.

He might survives the premiership even to today if he was smart enough to at least engage smart advisors, regardless of race and background, to do his job while he continue his sleep. Hey, the saying goes that if you’re not so smart then employs smart people to do your chores. That was why I hope my kids will never be so smart because if they are, chances are high they’ll ended up working for someone else. But I guess a PM who does not have properly functioning brains deserves what he’s getting today. The final stroke of bad decision was obviously the forever fuel hike that caused the inflation to skyrocket. He went back to sleep thereafter leaving his deputy to urge people to change their style (again?) of living. When average-Joes on the street were having difficulties putting foods on the table that was when the earthquake started and tsunami hit his coalition party. The captain lost 5 states in the Mar general election. And when he thought the tsunami has ended, the next 78 sen (41%) fuel hike was announced and naturally opposition Anwar won Permatang Pauh by-election handsomely.

The second item on the top list that contributed to his fall was perhaps his continuous “racist” policies inherited from his master, Mahathir Mohamad. His party, UMNO, was allowed free hand in flashing racial cards ranging from brandishing the “keris”, telling the non-Malay that UMNO do not need a single of their votes to stay in power, threatening the non-Malay with “13th May” (again?) incident to even intimidating his own component parties such as Gerakan into submission. It was the highest degree of arrogance, abuse of power, mismanagement and corruption that led to the people’s “Makkal Sakti”. Myth-wise, his downfall could also be contributed to his decision to marry divorcee Jeanne Abdullah nee Danker, former wife of Abdullah’s late wife’s brother. Not sure if Badawi had consulted feng-shui master (can’t afford Lilian Too, Joey Yap or Master Soo’s consultation fees?) but it appeared his new wife somehow “accelerate” the end of his political career, talk about bad luck or “four pillars of destiny”. For this you got to give credit to Mahathir because he is a big fan of feng-shui. His “Islam Hadhari” could be blamed as well partly because naughtily it means “had hari” (limited days?) so I guess his expiry day has arrive.

Badawi, the Father of Empty Corridors

Badawi should stop beating around the bush
that he’ll not defend his UMNO presidency in March 2009 because he loves the party and wish to put the nation’s interest above all. Accept the fact that he’s no longer welcome not only by the people at large but also by his own comrades within UMNO. Sure, somebody who is “next-in-line” could have plotted the Supreme Council Warlords to kick him out but if he can at least produce a non-blank report-card since he took over the premiership, the attempt would not have been so easy. He tried to imitate his successor in promoting mega project and started the silly “Corridors” initiatives. Of course it didn’t take off handsomely because the scale was simply unbelievable – between RM800 billion to RM1.3 trillion (I was flabbergasted). He’s now shown the “Exit Corridor” instead.

Now that he’s leaving for good (hopefully he won’t flip-flop again) suddenly people realized that they have to deal with a potential new Prime Minister who might be equally weak, not to mention tainted with the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaaribuu. Looking at the quality of the zombies who threw in their nomination for the UMNO deputy President post, the future of this country looks to be gloomy. Economic aside, the possibility of Mahathir playing the role of a decision-maker behind the curtain in Najib’s administration will bring back the dark-age of the past. Despite Badawi’s last pledge to carry-out the five missions before he pack, nobody believes it could be done within four-months since he didn’t manage to do it in four-years. Have a nice sleep Mr. Flip Flop Sleepy Head!

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Arrogance, Greed & Corruption – Will We Ever Learn?
• Lame Duck PM to quit? Or another Mother of All Lies?
• FDI Out-Flows began rushing the day Badawi becomes PM
• RPK sent to detention without trial, FCUK you Big Bully
• Badawi to Quit but not before Anwar is put under ISA?
• Operasi ISA Started? Climate of Fear for the Country
• The Myth of 916 and One Last Racist Drama from BN
• Crackdown on bloggers’ websites? Stop the Stupidity
• Oil price hike – Badawi’s greatest Economic Challenge

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October 9th, 2008 by financetwitter

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