Commentary
OCT 12 - Maybe it is a Malaysian thing. We put someone up on a pedestal and praise him to the high heavens; tire of him and can't wait to see the back of him and then get mushy and sentimental about him when his end is near.
It happened in 2002 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced in 2002 that he would step down as Umno president and Prime Minister of Malaysia in October 2003. The same men and women who only months before were calling him a dictator and Mahafiraun were falling over themselves to declare him the best leader Malaysia ever had.
It is happening again now that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said that he will leave office in March.
Gerakan chief Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon rushed to judgment and is calling Abdullah as the Father of Democratic Reforms. Wasn't he the same chap who told Abdullah during a Barisan Nasional meeting a few weeks ago that he had lost the ground.
Instead of being so quick to hail our leaders as reformers or visionaries and shower them with gushing praise, we would be better served if a sober analysis is only done after they have left office. There is little doubt that Dr Mahathir's drive and vision turned Malaysia from an agrarian-based economy into one of the top trading nations in the world. But it came at a cost.
At national level, the institutions were compromised; the rule of law was not always respected and the all-important Constitution was treated as just another piece of paper. At party level, the culture of easy money and avarice took root and eventually strangled the ideals of volunteerism and service which marked the old Umno.
So on hindsight, while Dr Mahathir presided over the creation of a Malaysian middle class and the economic boom, he fell far short of the standards of Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Dr Ismail, Tun Hussein Onn in keeping the soul of Malaysia intact.
It is the same with Abdullah. He started on a solid footing after taking over as prime minister in October 2003, promising to return the gloss to the country's decaying institutions, especially the police and the judiciary.
The Royal Commission on the Police Force was set up and it came up with an exhaustive list of recommendations, many of which have been introduced. But the all important Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission has been stuck in limbo because of objections from senior police officers and their supporters in Umno.
A watered version of the commission was rejected by Dewan Rakyat and is now being fine-tuned. Similarly, judicial reforms were painfully slow in his first term of office. Only the events of March 8 knocked Abdullah into some action, resulting in him appointing prominent lawyer Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to the Cabinet and encouraging the setting up of the Judicial Appointments Commission.
But after the early exuberance, the judicial reforms were put on the backburner after it became obvious that many of the Umno ministers were opposed to change that would introduce more transparency in the system and put their actions under more scrutiny
On the day he announced that he would step down in March next year, Abdullah promised to see through the promised reforms of the judiciary, the setting up of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the complaints tribunal.
In an interview with Bernama, he said: "Before I leave, I will make sure that I implement a few reforms and some economic programmes…I must make good on the promises I have made, especially on the reforms.''
If he succeeds in getting these reforms done, then perhaps someday Abdullah can be called the Father of Democratic Reforms. Not any time before then.
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