Word: abdullah
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...Despite Malaysia's choreographed political system, Abdullah is something of an accidental Prime Minister. His iron-fisted predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled for 22 years, discarded three potential political heirs before settling on Abdullah in 2003. He was everything Mahathir was not: affable, cautious, nonthreatening. In the wake of several corruption scandals involving some of Mahathir's closest associates, it also helped that Abdullah was regarded as Mr. Clean. Nevertheless, many in Malaysia saw the now 68-year-old as a transitional figure, a placeholder until UMNO found someone more visionary. In January, Mahathir even claimed that he had picked...
...What Abdullah certainly did promise was to combat graft and strengthen civil liberties during his tenure. The vows so pleased Malaysian voters that in the 2004 elections, less than five months after Abdullah became Prime Minister, the National Front won its largest-ever mandate. But the euphoria hasn't lasted. Abdullah has been criticized for everything from restarting several of Mahathir's extravagant megaprojects to rolling back press freedoms that he himself had granted. At the same time, his stolid image as a compromise candidate has come back to haunt him. "His performance is disappointing, unexciting," says Kuala Lumpur-based...
...composed of more than a dozen ethnically based parties, minority Chinese and Indians are complaining more loudly about perceived government discrimination. In particular, many non-Muslims feel it is getting harder to freely practice their own faiths. Ethnic and religious tensions have gotten so bad, in fact, that even Abdullah admits the National Front probably won't match its 2004 landslide victory. Compounding matters are high consumer prices that have shocked Malaysians who are used to living cheaply off the bounty of their resource-rich homeland...
...opposition candidate who could challenge Abdullah won't be running on March 8. Anwar Ibrahim, a former Deputy Prime Minister who was jailed for six years on corruption charges that human-rights activists considered politically motivated, is an impassioned orator who can draw crowds of tens of thousands. His cult of personality drives the People's Justice Party, whose racial diversity is rare in Malaysian politics. But Anwar was banned from politics for five years because of his jail time. The embargo expires in April. Given that Abdullah could have called elections any time over the next 15 months...
...Abdullah maintains that he has "forgotten" all about Anwar, preferring instead to outline a vision of several "economic-growth corridors" that he says will transform the manufacturing and service sectors. (One corridor happens to run through Abdullah's hometown, Kepala Batas.) The PM points to rising rural incomes as proof that his economic policies are working. Placating farmers is particularly important given that rural Malaysia is the National Front's core constituency. And even in the urban areas, Abdullah's renowned blandness could actually help him. "The thing about him is that no one hates him," says Liew Chin Tong...