Abdullah’s last stand
In the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, a hopelessly outnumbered General Custer, along with his Seventh Cavalry of the United States Army, was defeated by a combined Lakota-Northern Cheyenne force. Custer and his forces were outnumbered at least three to one. When the end came, it was swift, the final battle lasting only 30 minutes to an hour.
As Abdullah Badawi surveys the formidable gathering forces - Anwar and the Pakatan Rakyat, Tengku Razaleigh and Mukhriz, Mahathir and Najib - on the terrain around him, he could be forgiven for wanting to dig in deep and come out fighting with a slew of reforms. Why, even Hishamuddin has apologised!
But these reforms are likely to be too little too late. For one thing, he has not delivered where it matters most. Think of the yet-to-be-formed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission, a truly independent judiciary, a fearlessly independent Election Commission, the release of the Hindraf and other ISA detainees and the repeal of repressive laws such as the ISA, the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Universities and University Colleges Act.
The only real question now is how long he can last.
Abdullah’s second-chance reform drive
By Anil Netto
PENANG - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has mounted a rearguard fight to salvage his leadership in the face of a poor electoral showing and formidable challenges to his rule, both from within and outside his United Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO) party.
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Outstanding article. I really can’t find one single article for the past weeks that sums up the reality of AAB - our ex PM soon
Hi anil,
I love in abdullah once but i hate him now due to is empty promises,lies and left is people … like krismuddin and also brought back the proven corrupted tyson.
But i still prefer him at this moment rather than najib or any umno guys.They already sow a seed of hatred and the plants are growing.Most of umno big guns on denial mode why they are kick out but abdullah still a gentlement for accepting the lost.There is no operasi lalang under him.
Raj Raman;sometimes i view in different angle.
hi anil,
u must have been doing in depth research on mr. aab, his friends and foes. good job! keep up the good work. there should be another blogger like u in sarawak or sabah. we are very sick here. the ‘wind’ is blowing helplessly, and the ‘hornbill’ is dying. our hair gets ‘greyer’ and ‘greyer’. pls help us to improve things here. our chief minister propers day after day, while we, the rakyat, live desperately. we could hardly drive tens and tens of kilometers with a 10 ringgit petrol, but our chief minister still smile riding a thousand kilometer on the rakyat’s ringgits. pls help us out!
Should we discount AAB fully or not? When he is sorrounded by people (perceived to be corrupt) - just look at (certain of) his cabinet members - I don’t think he can do really much to walk his talk. It is just an empty can again, a lot of noice but nothing is done.
A judicial reform? What reform he is talking about?
He should be challenged to take action against, if he dares, (some of these high-ranking BN politicians) if he really means what he says.
Allegations of corruption against BN politicians are so many. To the BN, I think, “reform” is too big a word. If AAB can just, from now on, let our judges do their work without fear or favour, that is a reform big enough already.
How much longer will AAB last depends very much on how much space the rakyat is willing to give him. Though he has neglected much during his last term, he has now taken initiatives on many fronts. Instead of adding more oil into the fire which his detractors in UMNO has started, the rakyat should, if it wants to see progress on the initiatives taken, prod him, push him forward, guide him through the written words, and monitor him to keep him on track. Don’t continue to aid his detracors unwittingly.
Surveying the present bunch of leaders in UMNO, it doesn’t look like the rakyat can hope for anything or anyone much better. AAB, has, gone through a lot in this one short month. He has gone through the inferno, this experience should have make him a better man. Like Anwar and those who had gone through Kumunting, the experience, one hopes, has transformed him, like it had done to them. The horrible humiliation, the abuses, the insults that had been hurled at him certainly would have caused him to carry out some soul searching. Let us be more magnanimous and be a trifle more patient, let him have a bit more time to implement his changes.
General Custer lost to the Red Indians
He was too proud and never wanted to listen
He led his charges to his last stand
Cornered and never got a chance to live
Back to reality
AAB half heartedly measures
It won’t work
He loves committees
Every time he wants to change something
He never forgets his mindset of his government servant’s day
Committees here and there
Feeling good with no substance
More statements nothing concrete to show
Sleeping on it when the light hits the road
He doesn’t learn it; he never will
MCAC nothing new just merely a new paint
These people still report direct to him
Who is he fooling?
He better doesn’t say he wanted change
Let Parliament MPs handle it
He is free to think……….
But when he is sleeping in his mind
He doesn’t see the falling tree
He better throws away
The draconian laws in the country
BN and PR members will agree
He will get his stability
Will he since he is allegedly sleep walking?
He better listens
The ground is hitting foot steps
Stomping the ground for something unique
He better wakes up quickly
Before he is zeroed in
The Trojan Horses are put in place
A time he has none to run
He must do it quickly
Decisively and effectively
Throw away the draconian laws
Implement it quickly the programs for change
Saying sorry it isn’t hard to do
Else he is history
Like General Custer
People thought what he could have been
If only he listened……..
I have a feeling that Pak Lah will announce his stepping down in May this year, as the Malaysia’s controlled news are sprouting more news of the Deputy PM (practically little coverage is given to Pak Lah). In essence Pak Lah is preparing the path for Malaysian to get used to the current DPM.
Can anyone out there enlighten us on the outcome of the
correct! correct! correct! RCI (Circus) report? Thought
it should be submitted by yesterday with two weeks’
extension.
This time he better get it right and fast too. The rakyat’s burden is looming bigger and bigger. You DO NOT play with the lives of the rakyat, especially when you are PM.
Well done, Sdr Anil. Pak Lah can still redeem his dignity. He appeared lost after Endon passed away and thus KJ & Gang, the opportunists took advantage of him. Now Pak Lah should wake up and listen to the RAKYAT. A bit too late, but if he has the political will, he can still do a lot of things. Just talk with Zaid, then take quick and bold steps to bleach the AG Charmber, reform the Judiciary, implement IPCMC, abolish OSA, ensure total press freedom etc (like those pointed by you in your article). Ironically, Pak Lah may become one of the GREATEST PM of Malaysia overnite. So, don’t waste the chance.
Sounds familiar, closing the gate when the horse has bolted.
don’t count AAB out as yet, my friends, even though it seems like his PM days will be over very soon.
The whole irony of the GE2008 ‘defeat’ seems to have given AAB the political strength that he never was able to muster with his 91% landslide mandate the rakyat gave him in GE2004.
He simply could not carry through the reforms he promised then given the euphria and arragance built up over the years within his BN colleagues, who would never allow any encroachment into their politically-acquired economic pies being eroded if the reforms were really pushed through.
Now, comparatively, after 8 March, AAB has suddenly discovered he is now in a much stronger position to be able to start calling the shots, albeit he still has to feel his way along from one issue to the next. And so far, as the last one and a half months’s events unfold, we can see all those previous political hot-shots (the latest being Hishamuddin) mellowing down and started to behave a lot more correctly as YBs should.
I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised AAB just may be able to pull off the unthinkable and the impossible (his avowed political reforms) to further bring in the new political dawn of March 8 into mid-morning, if he is able to set his own timetable as to when he steps down.
AAB may yet be the one who seizes upon this God-given opportunity to help push the caterpilar worm out from the cocoon, and who knows we may soon see a butterfly emerging with wings ready to fly!?
AAB is not the forceful type (of ‘heros’) to create historical events, but he may one whom events can make him out to be a hero!
LTH
If AAB can carry through even some of the promised reforms, history and the Malaysian public will look kindly at him. At least, a lot more kindly than his predecessor who, in the end, was ‘hoist by his own petard’, as the French will say. An aging recalcitrant man in his 80’s still fighting for a place in Malaysian history, denied by former subordinates and pitied by his onetime peers. AAB, no matter his shortcomings, is not evil and does not deserve an ignominous fate.
Badawi has become infamous for his inaction. The thing is, everyone has forgotten one important action: releasing Anwar. LTH’s conclusions are correct. We all know what happened to the last person who tried to clean up the BN.
The question which begs to be asked is this: Is Badawi and Anwar two sides of the same coin? Besides the politicians from the east, who else could be getting ready to jump ship?