High Hopes From A “Settled” Abdullah-Exchanges With Din Merican
High Hopes From A “Settled†Abdullah
Exchanges Between Din Merican and Bakri Musa
Dear Bakri:
Raja Petra of Malaysia Today was spot-on when he wrote many months ago that Prime Minister Abdullah had found someone special to fill the void in his heart after the death of his beloved wife Datin Seri Endon nearly two years ago. Raja Petra correctly identified the lady as Jeanne Danker; he erred only in stating that Abdullah had already married her.
It is now official, confirmed no less by the Prime Minister himself at a press conference earlier this week, and covered prominently by the media. The ceremony will be this Saturday, June 9 at Seri Perdana. It will be a simple private ceremony.
Abdullah was exuberantly upbeat in making the announcement, beaming cheek-to-cheek and hardly able to contain his almost boyish excitement. For a brief moment, he forgot that he had been married before! That is understandable, and we all can forgive him for that. He should not however, let the memory of his late wife to come between him and his new bride. He must live the present, and work toward a better and greater future.
For the first time I saw in him the promise of a reinvigorated leader, undoubtedly renewed and inspired by his new love. It is amazing, Bakri, what a woman can do to a man when love is in the air. I also noticed that Abdullah had a fresh look. Again, the renewed inspiration!
I am thrilled that he has found his new lifelong companion. Jeanne will be a great asset to him, his family, and our country. I have heard nothing but positive feedback on her character and personality. She has excellent people skills, and is comfortable with people from all walks of life. Her personality complements his. She is well organized and has modest taste, a marked contrast to Abdullah. She will be an elegant and competent hostess at Seri Perdana.
With her modern outlook and background as a career woman, Jeanne will be very comfortable accompanying the Prime Minister on his overseas visits. She will hold her own among the wives of other heads of states and royalty.
My hope is that some of Jeanne’s organizational and time management skills will rub off on her new husband. God knows, Abdullah needs them! An injection of self-discipline will also do him good. She has to, otherwise he will continue to be bogged down with useless official trivia, with no time left for her. Alternatively. he may devote so much attention to his new wife to the detriment of his official duties.
I hope she would be successful in imparting to him this central message: Deeds speak louder than words. This is the message you, Raja Petra and others have not been successful in imparting on Abdullah. She needs to bring a much-needed dose of realism to his life. We have had enough of that put-on “feel good†sentiment. We demand results now, nearly four years into his leadership.
Like many, I am torn between in wanting to believe that he can lead, now that he is a “new†man. The reality however, points toward nothing but hot air and NATO (No action, talk only).
Like others, I hope that with Jeanne by his side, Abdullah would now settle down and pay attention to the many problems facing our nation, like making it less corrupt and fixing the economy. In short, I hope she will inspire him not only to be a “new man†but also a “new†leader.
We Malaysians are a forgiving lot; we are willing to give him yet another chance to prove his leadership. I do not know why, as there is nothing in his track record to support our contention. Nonetheless I always have faith that we humans are capable of learning, adapting, changing our mindset, and renewing ourselves. I am going against my better judgment here, but it is my hope that with Jeanne beside him, he would have inner peace and be a leader worthy of our great nation.
Sallam,
Din Merican
Dear Din:
There is nothing more heartwarming than to see two people in love declaring their commitment to each other, and sharing that joyous news with us all. Love is always beautiful and precious, no matter how many times around.
The only sour note to an otherwise sweet occasion was when the Prime Minister’s office ordered the mainstream editors to tow the line on what and what not to report. They of course willingly obliged; the force of habit.
We cannot lay the blame solely on the control freaks of the Fourth Floor; they have too many enablers in the editorial floors of our newspapers, radio and television stations. If this is how the boys on the Fourth Floor handle the good news, imagine what they would do when the news is bad!
The last occasion when citizens were engrossed with details of their leader’s love life was the time when President Clinton was busy with that infamous intern in the closet of the Oval Office.
Deaths and marriages of our loved ones are life-transforming events. It is not unreasonable of you to expect change in Abdullah from his new marriage. This new groom may turn out to be a new man, and in turn an invigorated leader. There is always hope. At least the wedding will be a restrained affair, unlike the gaudy extravaganza of that forty-something Datuk who married the celebrity singer his daughter’s age. Perhaps Raja Nazrin’s example is beginning to have an impact on our people.
Yes, the man has been distracted by his late wife’s long battle with cancer. That her death was expected did not make it any less sorrowful. The last few years must have taken their toll on Abdullah. I cannot pretend to comprehend the burden that he and his family had to endure. It must have been considerable.
I have factored in those elements in my assessment of Abdullah. I look at his record during his earlier tenure as Education, Defense, and Foreign Minister, among other positions. These were when Endon was still very healthy; meaning, he had no personal distractions.
At his age, it is unlikely that Abdullah would have any hitherto hidden talent remaining untapped. The chance of a “late bloom†is remote.
Abdullah reminds me of the simpleton character Chauncy the gardener, played by the late Peter Sellers in the movie, Being There. His unobtrusive silence and simple witted utterances were mistaken as profundities. Chauncy went on to advise even the President!
God knows, many sharp minds in Malaysia were taken in by Abdullah! Just ask Mahathir! The difference between Chauncy the gardener and Abdullah the Prime Minister is that Chauncy had no advisors. What he uttered were his own words; he was his own true self. Fool on those who wanted to read or give something more to the simple gardening wisdom he uttered.
Abdullah’s advisors insulate him. Even if he were to be transformed by his new love, his advisors would remain the same, and so would their advice to him.
While the country has no choice but to tolerate his “No action, talk only†stance, Jeanne would definitely not be satisfied with Abdullah’s NATO, husband-wise!
My fear is that with Abdullah totally consumed with his newfound love, his advisors would now become even more emboldened. Abdullah would not be there, at least mentally, to restrain them.
Further, if before we could be forgiving of Abdullah for his being always sleepy at important meetings (blaming it on his personal problems), now with a new young wife, he would have an even better excuse to be sleepy during normal working hours!
I wish the happy couple many long blissful years, and I hope, Din, that your and other Malaysians’ expectations will also come true.
Sallam,
Bakri
June 8th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Dr Bakri & Sdr Din Merican
Salaam
My, my!
Din: My hope is that some of Jeanne’s organizational and time management skills will rub off on her new husband. God knows, Abdullah needs them! An injection of self-discipline will also do him good. She has to, otherwise he will continue to be bogged down with useless official trivia, with no time left for her. Alternatively. he may devote so much attention to his new wife to the detriment of his official duties.
Dr Bakri: At his age, it is unlikely that Abdullah would have any hitherto hidden talent remaining untapped. The chance of a “late bloom†is remote.
Abdullah reminds me of the simpleton character Chauncy the gardener, played by the late Peter Sellers in the movie, Being There. His unobtrusive silence and simple witted utterances were mistaken as profundities. Chauncy went on to advise even the President!
I don’t think I want to be between a rock and a hard place what more between the Flux of Dr Bakri and the Flow of Sdr Din Merican.
You could feel like surfing the micro-waves. Unless, you learn the trick of the Silversurfer(coming this summer!) - now, that’s a cool dude.
Haaah! surf’s up, abdul! ( meaning moi)
June 9th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Vienna, Austria
Dr Bakri and Mr. Merican,
Yes, I agree, a good wholesome and pretty woman like Jeanne Danker is likely to do wonders for a man like your Prime Minister Badawi. But I am not sure that it can do the same for Malaysia. For Malaysia, the quality of its leadership is decisive. Dr. Mahathir was good for FDIs.
I have nothing against “spin” and the “feel good” game which politicians play, but there is no substitute for solid performance. In this regard, Malaysia is no exception. But your agencies must get down to serious business, if you want a fair share of global FDIs.
I had experience dealing with MIDA(Malaysian Industrial Development Authority) top brass in Kuala Lumpur some years ago. The senior lady I met at MIDA was talking about devising incentives and evaluation criteria for companies investing in Malaysia’s K-Economy. She wanted professional help. She was quite an impressive talker. I followed up with the MIDA office in Vienna, but I got no further response from Kuala Lumpur.
For me, the meeting with her turned out to be a sheer waste of time. I came away with the impression that MIDA could not be taken seriously. Now I read that inward bound FDI and domestic investment declined substantially in recent years. I am not surprised as I saw it coming.
It is more beneficial to deal with the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Singapore Government than MIDA and the Malaysian Government. The Singaporeans are very efficient in their handling of foreign investors.
As an observer, I find Malaysia has the potential to move up the value chain. But it also has a serious credibility and delivery problem. Your New Economic Policy and other rules are negatives and you need to change them. For example, no investor will hand over 30% equity of his company on a platter to the politically connected Malays. In stead, he will invest in Vietnam, for example, where he can have 100% ownership.
I do not even trust your official statistics. For instance, your inflation figures are grossly understated. Your government’s politically motivated decision to substantially raise wages, salaries and benefits for the public services, the Police and the Military will impact negatively on the cost of doing business in your economy. The cost of running the government will be prohibitively high while the burden of funding pensions (financing unproductive people) will be heavy over time.
I rely on the views of my Malaysian friends and professional contacts. They tell me that the investment climate for Malaysia is bad. They say that religious intolerence is on the rise. Your Justice Department is incompetent and corrupt, including your Court Judges and their officials. The corruption is rampant and in no time you will be like Indonesia where this scourge is a way of life.
Recently I read a unpbeat report by an American major investment, Merill. Lynch. I find it difficult to accept its findings. I get the impression that it could have been done at the behest of the “boys on the Fourth Floor” (Bakri).
If so, and if it is their motivation to make Malaysians and investors “feel good”, then your politicians and policy makers are in a state of delusion. You cannot make good policies if your facts and figures are doctored to suit your politics. Something is very wrong about Mr. Badawi’s leadership. Dr. Bakri is, therefore, right in raising a “posture of doubt”.
In my country, we do not make a big fuss about our Prime Minister taking a new wife. That is something personal and private, not a national pre-occupation. Malaysians tend to be excited when your Prime Minister appears on national tv to announce that he is going to marry again.
I watched the press interview on TV3, while I was in Singapore. I could not believe the Prime Minister’s body language and “childish” excitement. I thought he should be more focused on pressing national challenges and ought to leave the announcement of his marriage to his Press Officer or Private Secretary.
Mr.Merican is more hopeful than Dr. Bakri that your Prime Minister’s marriage will change his ways. I think Dr. Bakri is more realistic in saying that nothing will change. Not even, Jeanne can change the man’s personality and modus operandi. What has politics to do with love?
In any case, I wish both your Prime Minister and his wife many years of matrimonial bliss and lots of happiness. But it is time that Malaysia gets back to real business as the world does not wait for you.
After reading your exchanges over these years, I liken you both to Socrates and Plato. But unlike them, you both discuss the real stuff, that is Malaysian politics, economics and society with very critical 4-eyes, not philosophy and metaphysics. For that reason, I never fail to visit http://www.bakrimusa.com regularly for insights.
I also enjoy the banter between two good friends. Danke, Dr, Bakri and Mr. Merican.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Yo, Dude!
SURF”S UP!!!
I like this place! No,make it I LOVE this dot com.
Now, this a dandy of a place, real fine
I wonder if they serve one of them californian wine
Man, this place is squeky clean and sublime
Heck, I may learn a vulgar line or two in this clime
Hey, bakri you’d been to any of them exclusive clubs
like the Petronas Club on level forty-seven
or the slums and ghettoes - exclusee-vee-eye-pee-ty
like Ojai and Auswich
or just plain Mecca.
I like this place, dude.
Say, you ever watch Trading Places?
Bonfire of Vanity or Satanic Verses?
Naah, I don’t think you saw
The Human Stain starring Anthony Hopkins.
Or Pacino in Smell Of A Woman
Anyway, I love them movies
Elephant Man - oh shucks!
So here’s a poem tres bien pour
toi et toi et elles et illes et moi aussi
nous, mischien?
I like this place - love it!
Merde, ik heb gezet
(that vienna piece is familiar as Irish coffee, hmmm
and is that a lewinski or clinton or gore kinda dissapointment
or more like saddam or osama?
and what was the viennese pushing?
dope or hot money or radio active waste or biohazard?)
Never mind
Oke, it ain’t Shakespeare or Pound or Frost…
and do an Austrain Oak:
I’ll be back!
(is that a rolex, dude?)
Law, Like Love
Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.
Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.
Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.
Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.
Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.
Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.
And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.
If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,
No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyvay:
Like love I say.
Like love we don’t know where or why,
Like love we can’t compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.
WH Auden
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/WH-Auden/Law,-Like-Love/
June 11th, 2007 at 11:46 am
What Disappointed Foreigner said about MIDA and the Singapore EDB is all so true. I experienced it first hand several months back. EDB is so efficient that the officer have all the answer at hand while MIDA officers have to refer to KL. Even meeting the DG of MIDA only resulted in an email redirecting the question to another department, just like a traffic policeman directing traffic.
Mika Angel-O
Like your piece but often times you sound like you have had too many glasses of wine. You should say it like it is and not go into this poetry where the message is lost to many except those that have an interest.
June 11th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Dear Shrek,
It is obvious to this knowlegeable Austrian and some of us that Malaysia is drifting slowly but steadily down into the tubes after 22 years of impressive economic growth.
Soon we will all be in a dark hole with only kerosene/”minyak tanah” lamps to brighten the place. Global competition will put us there, unless we are shaken up from our idyllic stupor.
MIDA is supposed to be a one stop agency where local businessmen and foreign investors can get decisions and action prompto. In stead, it is a nightmare where, as you say, even the MIDA Director-General is a classic buck passer. It is a failure of leadership at various levels in MITI, starting with Minister Rafidah Aziz herself who is now warming her seat. But her ministry is not the exception. The problem is civil service wide.
Those in charge of making things happen are emulating the Leader by sleeping on the job (a force of habit for the PM and more now that he has Jeanne Danker sharing his bed at night—hey, Dr. Bakri, you are right, and I am extremely generous with this Pak Kaduk)?
During Mahathir’s time, top civil servants had bad dreams, not knowing when the Tun would pounce on them for shirking their duties.
Just look around us. We can’t even solve the “banjir kilat” problem in Kuala Lumpur, having spent more than RM1.3 billion on a new SMART flood mitigation system. Our Parliament House is leaking after we had spent some RM90 million on renovation works because our professionals forgot to check the roof over the august chambers. I wonder what will happen when our oil and gas resources run out.
In some parts of Kuala Lumpur, even in posh Bangsar Baru, we have a sizeable population of gagaks (crows) because rubbish remains uncollected for days on end. As a result, Bangsar Baru stinks with dry gagak blood and, on top of that, we attract more gagaks. See how smart the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and his team are.
In stead of solving the collection problem, we send sharp shooters with air guns to kill these birds!! What happened to our SPCA-Society for Prevention of Cruel to Animals. Maybe, crows are not animals!
Why all these? I submit it is our culture of bodekism and corruption.
“Bodekism”(Flattery and Sucking Up to the Boss) is the result of the vestiges of our feudal culture which are being injected into our Malay-dominated public services. To reach the top these days, you do not have to be smart, efficient and hardworking.
All you have to do is to “ampu”(curry favour) and you will rise rapidly to the level of incompetence (the Malay word for incompetent is, according to Dewan Bahasa, “inkompeten”, which basically tells me that we do not have this word in the Malay lexicon).
Even the performance evaluation and reward system and Badawi’s KPI (Key Performance Indicators) for our civil servants are just hog wash. In government, minimum work and plenty of bodek and kipas are the bases for getting pay raises and bonuses. Goodbye to TQM (Total Quality Management) and Mission Statements, and soon even Blue Ocean Strategy.
Malaysia is also a corrupt country. Corruption has gotten worse and more blatant. We also have a more serious one to boot –nepotism. I hope Dr. Bakri, who can see things better than I from a distance, will find time from his busy surgery practice to write about the deceptions, lies and deceit, and incompetence of Badawi, the man we Malaysians endorsed overwhelmingly in the 2004 elections.
I am wondering whether we have grown wiser now and will not repeat the same mistake. I hope we can deliver a shokku/shock so that even a sleepy Badawi will sit up and start getting serious about his responsibilities as Prime Minister.
I do not expect him to be as smart, decisive and hard working as the exceptional Mahathir. But I did not bargain for a congenital liar who puts his family’s interests above all else. Mea culpa.
The time to get real is now. Otherwise, we deserve to be in the hogg house.
As for Mika Angel-O, I suggest he should not be a poet like Badawi who dreams of Imam Al-Ghazzali and Iman Al-Shafie and pretends that he is not interested in getting rich. Maybe, but what about members of his family who have amassed huge fortunes in so short a time.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Assalamualaikum, Dr. Bakri, and good evening fellow readers.
It seems that we have to be “outside”, in order to see “inside” better. And this had been proven many times over by Malaysian intellectuals who are living abroad. Too bad many of the government servants lack the knowledge of the Internet; they only use it to type “surat layang”. Had they come and visit your blog, and other blogs of Malaysians living abroad, it’ll be an eye-opening experience.
While it’s good for Pak Lah, now that he has a companion to warm the bed together with him, but I do fear and worry about the people around him. He’s too… SOFT. Even softer than the softies that I knew of. Hopefully, with Jeanne in the picture, he’ll be much tougher, especially after the recent flooding incident, and the series of building mishaps before.
He has been in the political arena for a long time. Supposedly, he can identify all the apes, baboons, anacondas, parrots and what-not in the parliament, and send those animals to the zoo, where they should be. But what we witnessed here in Malaysia is that these animals were given the rights to represent Malaysian citizen year after year after year. Perhaps it’s because of our confidence on those animals; that they are well-trained. Too bad, the trainer has resigned, and nobody’s willing to take his place.
I still remember how optimistic my mom and dad were when the news of Pak Lah’s being appointed as the new Prime Minister was aired. I wonder if they still have the same optimism towards Pak Lah.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:23 am
I hope Pak Lah had a thorough physical done by his Cardiologist and Urologist. He needs a Certificate of Fitness after being idle for 2 years and now any sudden increase in activities below the belt will probably overwork his heart and may result in plumbing problems. This is similar to the massive flooding in KL which completely paralysed KL.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:56 am
After dirtying our rivers we will spend 1.02 billion cleaning them up! YTL will be doing the job. Hey big spender!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Hey, I sense a tinge of envy here.
You guys have definitely underestimated Pak Lah. If he really puts his heart to it he can do anything. I am sure, given the same situation, some of you would not be that calm reciting the ‘lafaz nikah’ for the second, third or even fourth time in the presence of your family members and the media people. Even the kadi, who officiated at his akad nikah ceremony, admitted to having cold feet at marrying a serving PM!
Let’s hope now that Paklah has settled-in, he will get down to serious work, keep his GE 2004 promises which has been long overdue and live up to the people’s expectation.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Disappointed Foreigner Says:
June 9th, 2007 at 1:01 am
“…As an observer, I find Malaysia has the potential to move up the value chain. But it also has a serious credibility and delivery problem. Your New Economic Policy and other rules are negatives and you need to change them. For example, no investor will hand over 30% equity of his company on a platter to the politically connected Malays. In stead, he will invest in Vietnam, for example, where he can have 100% ownership…I do not even trust your official statistics. For instance, your inflation figures are grossly understated. Your government’s politically motivated decision to substantially raise wages, salaries and benefits for the public services, the Police and the Military will impact negatively on the cost of doing business in your economy. The cost of running the government will be prohibitively high while the burden of funding pensions (financing unproductive people) will be heavy over time…I rely on the views of my Malaysian friends and professional contacts. They tell me that the investment climate for Malaysia is bad. They say that religious intolerence is on the rise. Your Justice Department is incompetent and corrupt, including your Court Judges and their officials. The corruption is rampant and in no time you will be like Indonesia where this scourge is a way of life…Recently I read a unpbeat report by an American major investment, Merill. Lynch. I get the impression that it could have been done at the behest of the “boys on the Fourth Floor†(Bakri). ”
But these are sweeping statements.
I find it difficult to accept DF’s findings. I get the impression that it could have been done at the behest of Bakri and Din.
Well Shrek, that the wine talking again.
Feel free to express your thoughts.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Mika Angel O
Teman tak minum wine kalau beer hanya root beer. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all your postings. From your writing I envisioned you as a worldly traveller, a linguist and someone whose widely read and involved.
You also seem to have inside information especially the legend of Istana Bukit Chandan. You also have a way with words but sometime I get lost in trying to read your posting. I can read and write in short sentences and my vocabulary is simple. I believe in keep it simple.
DF didn’t make sweeping statement rather expressing his opinion and thought in a general way instead of quoting specific incidents. Often times it’s best to not be specific. We have to accept his perceptions based on the advise given by his professional contacts. Often times the government issued information and data differs from those issued by the commercial sector. An investor willmore often rely on commercial data and information as they are done with the investor’s interest.
Maybe Mika is upset with the perception of religious intolerence. But isn’t that obvious. Malay/Muslims are always right. Others don’t mean a shit. Religious tolerance must also include acceptance, i.e. acceptance of the rights to practise other religions apart from Islam and acceptance that this freedom is enshrined in the Constitution. Have you noticed on Fridays how Muslims just park their cars double or triple deep in front of Mesjid Negara blocking traffic and being a nuisance to other road users.
June 13th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I believe the term “religious freedom” is being abused by the (ironically) Malay Muslims. To the extend that it will become an embarrassment in the future.
The other day, I got into a heated argument with my father over the issue of “religious freedom”. This means that not only that many Malaysians didn’t know about religious freedom, but also are not aware of its contexts. And the Government didn’t even bother to explain.
As for the Muslims themselves, I believe that we can’t use the religion as an excuse to make other people’s lives hard. In other words, the Quranic recitation in the morning must not disturb the non-Muslim (unless they like to hear it, don’t shove it to their ears), cars should not be park in a manner that blocked the traffic when it comes to Friday prayer or Hari Raya prayer or any religious-related function, etc.
The problem is right now, neither tried to understand and tolerate; the Malay Muslims are not willing to consider about the feelings of other races (ironically, Allah said that as Muslims, we have to be considerate of our human relations), other races and religious groups are not given any fair chance to acquire explanation or were they given a chance to voice out their disagreement, and in a rare chance that they do, the media (under the order of the government) twisted the message in such a way that it causes racial discord.
Being a young, aspiring 24-year old intellectual Malaysian (and a Malay on top of that), it is a sad thing to see that in the 50th year of its Independence, Malaysia still fails to integrate its many races, religions, and culture to work and move as one nation. All thanks to the leaders citizens of Malaysia willingly (or unwillingly) had chosen again and again.
July 4th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
the bottom line is… what can we collectively DO?