Comment: Point Blank: A Prime Minister’s fine obsession
Johan Jaafar
April 8, 2006
New Straits Times

April 8: AS the studio lights dimmed and the credits rolled, observant viewers saw the Prime Minister wiping his tears on TV.

The most frequently asked question I encountered was, did Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi actually shed tears during the interview? At some point, he appeared overwhelmed by emotion and carefully chose his words at the end.

And yes, he acknowledged how difficult it was to handle the loss of his beloved wife last October in the midst of preparing what is probably the most important document in his tenure as Prime Minister — the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

It was difficult to ask anyone of his or her bereavement. But Pak Lah made it known to his countrymen that he could not be distracted by what happened.

"I cannot ignore my responsibilities only because of a personal loss."

My next question was: "But did it not summon an immense strength from you to ensure that you had the guiding light to continue such a great effort?" His reply spoke volumes. "Pray to God. I pray. I am entrusted to discharge my responsibilities. My way might not be the same as others. My level of patience might not be the same. All of us are not the same. But there are similarities. Our faith in Allah is the same."

I had the honour of interviewing him for RTM1 on the 9MP last Monday. He spent 58 minutes of his precious time at a special studio in Putrajaya talking openly about his beliefs, dedication and hopes for the future. Even before the taping, as we were talking casually about his well-received speech in Parliament the previous Friday, he was bullish about the response from the rakyat and how he envisioned the grand plan becoming a reality "even when we are not around to witness it".

"He spoke from the heart," Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Mydin (Zam) told me later, and Malaysians who watched the broadcast that Monday night couldn’t agree more.

The Prime Minister addressed another question many wanted to hear: Why continue "Wawasan 2020" (Vision 2020) despite its close association with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad? It had become synonymous with Tun. Why not start something new so that people will say, "Oh, this is Pak Lah’s."

His answer was vintage Abdullah. "I am committed towards the aim of Vision 2020, just like Tun Mahathir. It was started when Tun Mahathir was with the Government and I was one of the members of that Government. And we have worked in a number of ways over the last 15 years to achieve that aim. We are halfway there. Why would I want to have a new mission just to inscribe my name (on it)?"

Anyone watching the programme certainly agreed with me on how passionate he was on the 9MP. I joked with Zam later that the PM must have memorised every full stop and comma in the 500-page document. He was at ease articulating some of the minor points ignored by the media. He explained how the document differed from previous ones. He wanted the people to look at the Plan in totality, so it was crafted not in thematic form.

Even the implementation was part of the planning. Take the case of human capital, he pointed out. The entire structure and progress that we want would depend on human capital, so it appeared in every one of the five thrusts. It was an integral part of the entire formulation.

Do we have the right mindset, attitude and values to pursue the Plan’s aims? He didn’t mince words. We cannot have two different wavelengths in the country. We must forgo personal differences and interests. We have to strive for excellence. And the world is changing.

"So there are times when we need to change our ways of doing things.

"Even laws are not cast in stone, no law should remain unchanged except the Quran. So we need to change our ways, our attitudes, so, too, our views at a particular period of time."

He implored the people to change with the times, to discard old baggage and to shift our paradigms. The issue about a first-class mentality and First World values is not "cakap kosong" (empty talk). We have to work to achieve that. We have the strength, the capabilities and the infrastructure, and we can do it. To him, failure is not an option.

He was also concerned about racial unity. Again, he was forthright, and argued for the need for the education system to play a unifying role. He said we had to empower education to unite our people.

He even apologised "for taking a long time" to empower our schools. "We need to hasten it …to make the national school the school of choice."

Another matter that moved him was the environment. "It touched my heart, made me disappointed, made me angry." He disagreed that the desecration of the environment was inevitable due to development. It was due to "the way development was carried out". He has instructed state leaders to make sure "we have clean beaches, clean seas and clean rivers".

He told me he was more committed than ever to fight corruption in his party, Government and country. Eradicating corruption was not easy, he admitted.

"People want to see blood. They want to see how many get slaughtered, how many get prosecuted." But he stressed the importance of prevention. He wanted to rid this country of the culture that allows corruption. Yes, it is a tall order. In his speech in Parliament, he used a Malay proverb to stress his determination: "Patah sayap bertongkat paruh, tetapi hasrat tidak luntur." (If the wing is broken, the beak will support the weight, but the aim will not falter.)

You can’t find fault with a man with such an obsession.