Malaysia's Father-In-Law

by Alex Wong

Previous Prime Ministers of Malaysia have been granted sobriquets that are hallmarks of their legacies. But it seems that our fifth Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is unable to salvage any honourable legacy for Malaysians to remember him as.

Before we grant a sobriquet to Abdullah, let's review the legacies of previous Prime Ministers.

Bapa Kemerdekaan
Tunku Abdul Rahman was Father of Independence (Bapa Kemerdekaan). Both the formations of Malaya and Malaysia were two of Abdul Rahman's greatest achievements.

Bapa Pembangunan
Tun Abdul Razak was Father of Development (Bapa Pembangunan). He is renowned for launching the Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP).

Bapa Perpaduan
Tun Hussein Onn was the Father of Unity (Bapa Perpaduan). Tun Hussein was renowned for stressing on the issue of unity through policies aimed at rectifying economic imbalances between the communities.

Bapa Pemodenan
Tun Mahathir Mohamad was the Father of Modernization (Bapa Pemodenan). Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister, and one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia was credited for engineering Malaysia's rapid modernization and promoting "Asian values".

Bapa ???
What about Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

His half-hearted effort of empowering anti-corruption agencies and providing more avenues for the public to expose corrupt practices has earn him little accolates because the people arrested were all considered as “small fries”.

His Islam Hadari concept, which advocates the intercompatibility between Islam and economic and technological development, has been ridiculed by many Islamic scholars.

Perhaps one of his more sucessful actions was the setting up of a Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police. Yet, his detractors said that he didn't go the distance to implement the commission’s suggestion to set up the IPCMC, due to internal revolt, among other things.

It won't be exagerating to say that Abdullah is considered by many as the weakest and most incompetent Prime Minister of Malaysia. And as the joke goes, our fifth Prime Minister will probably be most remembered only as: the Father-in-law of Khairy Jamaluddin (Bapa Mertua).