Malaysia’s Mr Clean
(New Mandala) – Greg Lopez looks at the legacy of former Malaysia PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and whether power corrupts even the most ‘ethical’ of Muslim leaders.
In Malaysia, is being a Muslim a prerequisite to being an ethical leader?
The iconic former spiritual leader of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS), the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, stated that only a Muslim could be the prime minister of Malaysia. His popular argument was crouched in terms of majoritarian politics but a deeper introspection suggests that the Tok Guru had a vision for a Malaysian state that was ruled by Islamic scholars.
An analysis of Malaysia’s fifth Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, who ruled from 2003 to 2009 and is considered the most qualified “Islamic” leader among Malaysia’s six Muslim prime ministers, raises more questions than it resolves.
To-date, the most comprehensive analysis of Tun Abdullah Badawi years as prime minister is Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years in Malaysia, a book edited by Bridget Welsh and James UH Chin and published in 2013.
While extensive it does not provide any definitive answer (the editors acknowledge the difficulty in attempting to do so). The book certainly provides an interesting analysis. It also most certainly provides several interesting facts and raises several interesting issues in relation to whether being a Muslim is either a necessary or sufficient condition to providing ethical leadership in Malaysia.
Tun (then Datuk Seri) Abdullah Badawi – popularly known as Malaysia’s Mr Clean – would fit the Tok Guru’s conceptualisation of a “good leader” and certainly an “ethical leader.”
