Was Decency Enough?

 

Yesterday, Malaysia lost its first Prime Minister in the post-Mahathir era, Mr. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who was affectionately known as “Pak Lah.” Mr. Badawai was 85 and been suffering from ill health when he passed. The tributes are now pouring in, and just about everyone is remembering Mr. Badawai is a decent man, something which Malaysia’s recent crop of politicians are not known for.

Mr. Badwai was what you’d call, as different as you could get from his predecessor, Dr. Mohammad Mahathir. Like his contemporary in Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Dr. Mahathir was a strong personality, who seemed to make every achievement of the nation about him and his efforts. While Dr. Mahathir did preside over an era of prosperity, he did get a little too fond of being in the hot seat. This was visibly seen by his abrupt jailing of this then mentee, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim (now Malaysia’s Prime Minister), which started what was probably the most interesting political drama in the region.

Mr. Badawi was very different. He made it clear that he was going to run things on a more consensual basis:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/04/14/work-with-me-not-for-me-how-pak-lahs-humble-approach-shaped-malaysias-economic-and-human-capital-landscape/173079

 

 He was as good as his word. He restored parliament’s ability to hold the executive to account and became known as the “Human Capital Development” Prime Minister. The aim was simple, growing Malaysia’s human capital to be a source of wealth.

He became, for the time that he was in office, a man respected for his decency. As the English, Malaysia-based fraud examiner, Mr. Nigel Morris-Cotterill describes the Badawi era as “What Malaysia could and should become.”

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7317733313794707456/

 

 Datuk Vinod Shekar, the CEO of Malaysia’s Petra Group states that Mr. Badawi put “country above himself” and explained that Mr. Badawi made decisions that could have shortened him political career but made them anyway:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7317744981450854401/

 

 Even when he left power, Mr. Badawai remained accessible. As former Bernama correspondent, Tengku Noor Shamsiah TengkuAbdullah recalls, he remained dedicated to national development:

https://www.weekly-echo.com/he-listened-he-led-he-inspired-tun-abdullahs-enduring-legacy/

 

 So, everyone seems to agree that Mr. Badawai was a very decent and dignified leader. He was the perfect foil to his predecessor and his decency and honesty stood out when compared to his successor, who took raiding the coffers to a new level.

While everyone is remembering Mr. Badawi’s legacy, there’s one uncomfortable truth. Mr. Badwai’s time in office was remarkably short. He was in office for a mere six-years, which pales in comparison to the 22-years plus of Dr. Mahathir’s first stint and the nine years of his successor, Najib Razak.

Why would a nation give such a decent man less time in office when it gave his predecessor and successor more?

The sad truth is that decency and power usually don’t mix well. People in positions of power must resort to “compromise” and at times do things that are the opposite of “decent.” In Mr. Badawi’s case, his decency as a person worked against him.

Let’s start with the obvious, “doing the right thing,” upsets the status quo, which inevitably means hurting the interest of people who are inevitably supposed to be on your side. Then, there’s the fact that in parliamentary democracies, political parties have a way of removing leaders that might look like they’ll cost them an election. Think of how the UK’s Conservative party dumped Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, even though she led them to three election victories.

Given that Malaysia at the time had no credible opposition to speak of, most of Badawi’s issues were internal. Trying to lead Malaysia away from its corruption issues meant that he upset forces in his own party. So, when he lost seats, those forces led a coup against him and he was replaced by his deputy, who promptly led an administration so corrupt that a once disorganized opposition united and kicked the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition out of power for the first time since independence.

In a way, Mr. Badawi was like another character – Manmohan Singh, India’s last non-BJP Prime Minister, who was a decent man who didn’t know how to deal with unscrupulous people on “his side.” Like Mr. Singh in India, Mr. Badawi took responsibility for the failures of his administration, though unlike Mr. Singh, Mr. Badawi had the good fortune of being succeeded by someone corrupt, which made him look saintly by comparison.

If you read Nicolo Machiavelli, you’ll notice that the main thread is that power is a “dirty game.” One must be prepared to use it ruthlessly. However, one also needs leaders of good character. As the Dalai Lama argued, it’s more important to have a national leader of good character than a hermit. Finding that balance in a national leader is something no political system has perfected but its something all nations need to keep working at.