Word: kepala
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Dates: during 2008-2008
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Bill Clinton came from a little town called Hope. Chairman Mao sprung from the chili-eating village of Shaoshan, a place whose entire economy now relies on promoting its native son. So it's instructive to think for a moment of the rural district of Kepala Batas, home to Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The locals of Kepala Batas, located in western Malaysia's Penang state, consider Abdullah, whose ruling National Front coalition is contesting the March 8 general elections, a kindly, avuncular presence. But their real respect appears to be reserved for his father and grandfather, both...
...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...
...Indians, who are Malaysia's poorest ethnicity, are so frustrated that they have marched by the thousands in Kuala Lumpur in recent months. "We respected [the National Front] for a long time, but they haven't helped us at all," says rubber tapper M. Krishnan, an ethnic Indian in Kepala Batas. "So now we need to change, to fight...
...Malaysia's electorate. For the opposition to really score big, it must lure more Malays and Chinese. In previous elections, the opposition Islamist party PAS has had some success portraying its religious values as an antidote to rising crime and drug use. Back in 2004, 30% of Kepala Batas voters actually chose the PAS parliamentary candidate over Abdullah. (In a complicated twist of family history, Abdullah's father served as a PAS youth leader, before the party fully broke with UMNO.) This election season, PAS's green-and-white flags flutter throughout Kepala Batas. "Abdullah may come from a good...
...Still, even PAS's Kepala Batas candidate, Subri Arshad, doesn't believe he'll trump Abdullah. All he hopes for is to lower the PM's margin of victory. But if Kepala Batas entrepreneurs like Lee Peir Jye are any indication, Abdullah has little need for concern. "It doesn't matter if it's Abdullah or someone else," says the mobile phone-shop owner. "As long as we support the government, there will be stability, and that's good for business." Not a ringing hometown endorsement, but it's all Malaysia's accidental Prime Minister needs...
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