Not yet out of Mahathir's shadow

摘要

Malaysians are not used to wonder-ing where their prime minister stands. Mahathir Mohamad, who quit the job last October after 22 years in office, never left them in any doubt, whether he was extolling his country's economic success, or berating the foreign financiers who, he claimed, were conspiring to undermine it. His successor, Abdullah Ahmad Ba-dawi, by contrast, is a much less outspoken and more inscrutable figure. Malaysians are still trying to work out whether he is a cautious reformer-or merely a less voluble version of Dr Mahathir. Mr Badawi does not pretend to be a revolutionary. He served as Dr Mahathir's deputy prime minister for almost five years and in other cabinet positions before that. What is more, Dr Mahathir's allies still dominate the ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and the cabinet. No wonder, then, that Mr Badawi has proposed only gentle revisions to his predecessor's agenda: more openness and accountability in government, less corruption, fewer expensive prestige projects, more rural development and so on.