How it could have been - Pak Lah

When Pak Lah took over as PM in 2003, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. Enough of the Mahathir years! The people gave the man known as Mr Nice Guy and Mr Clean a massive electoral victory in 2004 where BN won an unprecedented 198 out of 220 seats in Parliament.

With a mandate like that and the collective goodwill of the people behind him, the sky was the limit. Granted, he wasn't the most dynamic politician. In fact, he was rather bland and laid back. But he has a smart son-in-law in the form of KJ, educated in Oxford no less, who could advise him. There was so much to look forward to, so much to be achieved.

Imagine if KJ had told him the following:

Pak Lah, you have a mandate like no one else. You have an excellent reputation of being Mr Clean. The public loves you. They are tired of the crony capitalism, media control and lack of civil liberties associated with the Mahathir years. You can change all that.

First thing you have to do is to rid the Cabinet of anyone who is not pro-reform. If they are likely to opposed your agenda for change, sack them and replace them with someone more progressive, open and intelligent. Sure, this would upset some UMNO warlords but who cares! Because of you BN now has 90% control of Parliament. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

All those good things that the opposition are shouting about -- let's co-opt those ideas and suck the oxygen out of their camp. Let's really really clamp down on corruption, let's introduce the Freedom of Information Act, let's get rid of repressive laws like the ISA, Sedition Act, Universities and University Colleges Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, etc so that Malaysia can be a true democracy. Let's do all that in your first term alone.

If you do all that, Pak Lah, in one single term alone, you would have superseded Dr M's 22 years in office. Yes, he modernized Malaysia but at what cost? He ruled with an iron fist. Crony capitalism is rampant. There's no press freedom. You can change all that and become the greatest PM Malaysia has ever had.

If Pak Lah had done all that, the opposition would have died a natural death and Pak Lah would still be PM today.

But that was not to be. KJ was too busy shoring up his own power base to push through all these reforms. He figured with an overwhelming electoral victory like that, Pak Lah could coast through his first term and still be a popular prime minister. But he was wrong. Expectations were high and Pak Lah failed to fulfill any of the things society had expected of him. Coasting cost him the traditional 2/3rds majority in parliament that BN has always counted on (which allowed it to change the Constitution at will). It also cost him four states which fell to the opposition. And eventually it cost him the presidency of UMNO and his PM-ship.