Hail, hail to Malaysia's Pak Lah
By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - He gazes down from highway overpasses, building facades, light
posts and banners stretched between trees - neck erect, chin dipped a trifle, a
glint of humble warmth in his resolute gaze.
The portrayal of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi as both firm and avuncular
helped propel him and his ruling coalition, the Barisan National, to a
resounding election victory in 2004. It built trust in his campaign promises to
fight corruption without fear or favor, bridge the rural-urban wealth divide
and promote moderate Islam. It also raised hopes he would allow for more
democratic space after decades of authoritarian rule.
His track record in the four years since has not lived up to the
portrait and political marketing. Corruption remains endemic. Islam is more
aggressively asserting itself in the public and political spheres. His
government has intimidated bloggers and whistleblowers and since November
forcefully extinguished rallies calling for electoral reform, racial equality
and price controls.
Abdullah's overall approval rating stood at 91% when he became prime minister
in 2003. Now, only 38% of Indians and 42% of Chinese, the country's main
minority groups, approve of his job performance, according to an opinion poll
conducted last month by the independent Merdeka Center. The overall rating has
fallen to 61%.
And
so the excessive use of his portrait would seem almost counterintuitive, even
in the runup to general elections, which are expected to be held in March. "For
those who feel deprived it would seem to have the opposite of the desired
effect: 'He deprived me and now he's smiling at me'," said the president of
Transparency International Malaysia, Ramon Navaratnam.
But there he is flicking by like a shuffled deck of cards on highway lampposts
and the road leading to Parliament, in front of the national library and
mosque, beside shopping centers, at roundabouts and inside the central train
station.
In the historic neighborhood of Kampong Baru, banners welcoming him on February
14 occupied so many lightposts there was little room left for local rock bands
to stick bills for their upcoming concerts. One might be excused for concluding
that the capital is more awash with portraits of Abdullah than ornaments for
Chinese new year.
Political analyst Zaharom Nain says it's a matter of projecting image over
substance. "It looks as if his media people are saying, 'Let's maintain that
nice-guy image. Yes we've had a tumultuous year, let's try to incorporate those
dissenting voices, we're here, we're considering what you're saying and we are
doing something about it'."
After the Hindu Rights Action Force held a 20,000-strong march in front of the
iconic Petronas Towers in November, protesting what it felt was marginalization
of the Indian community, Abdullah's portrait appeared on banners with swirls of
Tamil language advertising a meeting with Indian organizations intended to
smooth relations.
To be sure, the proliferation of Abdullah's portrait is not just a matter of
electoral fervor. It dates to his first days as prime minister, when it was
used to cut a sharp contrast with his iron-fisted predecessor, Mahathir
Mohamad, said Mustafa K Anuar, associate professor of communications at the
Science University of Malaysia. Abdullah's portrait was used to reinforce the
sense that a softer, more caring and generous leader had taken over, and it had
been "exploited to the hilt", said Mustafa.
Front and center
Abdullah's face was positioned front-and-center last year on billboards for
Malaysia's 50th anniversary, like those found in front of the Ampang Park
shopping center in the capital Kuala Lumpur. Those ads depict Malaysia's five
prime ministers ascending in size from first to most recent - only Abdullah
appears in color, looking simultaneously decorous and decisive.
Some of those signs, now fading, have been replaced with banners featuring
Abdullah for the minor holiday known as Federal Territories Day. Friday's
edition of the state-controlled daily newspaper The Star featured a photo of
Abdullah at a launch for a new model from national car maker Proton with a
sticker of his face on the door of the car he stood beside.
Abdullah is not the first prime minister to enlist his self-portrait to
cultivate a winning persona. Mahathir's picture was likewise widely plastered
in the public domain; the key difference, however, is in the characterization.
Mahathir was prickly and authoritarian, "with the courage of his convictions to
treat his varied and staunch opposition with contempt", notes Khoo Boo Teik in
the book Beyond Mahathir.
And rarely did his portrait suggest otherwise: even his smiles tended to look
fleeting. His image was nurtured less through the use of his portrait and more
through actions and policy - though certainly with the help of his servile
groomers in Malaysia's tightly controlled media. In comparison, Abdullah so far
has little to claim in terms of policy achievements.
What he does have is a firm but gentle common-man portrait that diverges widely
from the actual substance of his tenure. It is a velvet glove for the iron
fist; kid-glove treatment for the country's creeping Islamization and unabated
corruption; a counterpunch to the growing chorus characterizing him as a
draconian leader of inaction and indecision.
On the matter of degree, most people interviewed for this article noted that
even Mahathir's face wasn't as omnipresent as Abdullah's. Many of these people
hadn't considered how in-your-face Abdullah's mug had become in Malaysia's
daily life until this reporter mentioned it, an indication of the sheer
relentlessness of the campaign. It has become ubiquitous to the point of being
subliminal.
A press secretary for the prime minister said that with the exception of
Abdullah's pictures used for the 2004 general election, the Prime Minister's
Office had had no involvement in the banners or billboards featuring the prime
minister. "We have never been asked about using his image. We never approve
anything," she said.
She said the use of Abdullah's image was mostly taken up by other ministries
and ad agencies such as Big Tree, which is a 100%-owned subsidiary of the
country's largest media company, Media Prima. The government-linked Malaysia
Resources Corporation Berhad owns a significant portion of Media Prima. "But
there is no directive," the press secretary said.
Another employee in the Prime Minister's Office who worked closely on the 50th
anniversary advertisements with the Ministry of Arts Culture and Heritage and
on other official ad campaigns tells it differently. He said the Prime
Minister's Office assists with or at least signs off on most depictions of the
prime minister used for official federal campaigns and functions.
"Most [ads featuring Abdullah] need to go through us," he said speaking on the
condition of anonymity. "We give the approval to put up certain banners." On
ads featuring the prime minister that were not overseen by the Prime Minister's
Office, he added, "Sometimes we send letters to take down pictures [of
Abdullah] if they're not a good photo."
Father Lah
Which raises the question: is Abdullah seeking to cultivate a personality cult?
Professor of sociology at the National University of Malaysia, Abdul Rahman
Embong, says not. "He is profiling the leadership of this country," Abdul said,
reiterating the point that Abdullah needed to distinguish himself after
two-plus decades with the nation's self-proclaimed father of development,
Mahathir Mohamad, at the helm.
There's no Little Red Book as their was in China, no songs venerating a Dear
Leader as in North Korea, no statues in the square. But there is the use of
humble, egalitarian-sounding slogans like, "I am the number one public
servant," and "Work with me not for me," to soften the entrenched feudalistic
leanings of his party, the long-ruling conservative United Malays National
Organization. His nickname, Pak Lah, short for Father Abdullah, feeds the
script.
Abdullah may not be in the same league as North Korea's Kim Jong-il, former
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein or the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin, all
notorious for the personality cults they built around their leadership, but the
Malaysian leader has shown a knack for political marketing - similar to the
techniques ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra deployed to shore up
his administration's grass roots popularity.
With elections around the corner, the question now is whether or not the
campaign is working. "No doubt his intention is to camouflage excesses in
executive action and abuses perpetuated by his administration," said Ramdas
Tikamdas, former president of the National Human Rights Society. "But any
reasonably minded Malaysian will have to see this 'uncle' against his stern
executive action."
Ramdas may be underestimating the deep feudalistic underpinnings of Malaysia's
political culture. Talk to Malaysians about Mahathir's sacking of his former
deputy Anwar Ibrahim, who was subsequently jailed on dubious charges of
corruption and sodomy, and chances are they will tell you Anwar deserved what
he got because he openly challenged number one.
Or ask them about the prime minister's failure to fulfill his previous
electoral promises or to even give the impression that he is working toward
them and you'll likely hear a call to patience that defies the mounting anxiety
about the country's direction under his leadership. What many of these people
find more offensive than his poor track record is a foreign reporter
questioning the competency of their well-intentioned leader.
That may be changing, though, as Abdullah appears to have ruled with a
feudalistic streak of his own, found in his assumption that Malaysians will
back him even if he doesn't deliver on his campaign promises. Their loyalty has
further been tested by escalating crime rates, business scandals involving
Abdullah's own family members, a fast-rising cost of living and concerns about
Malaysia's long-term economic outlook.
Abdullah himself seems to recognize that the feel-good factor that he and his
spin doctors have devised may be wearing off. "Some of you can say that I'm not
good, you can say whatever. But don't say that I don't work. I work very hard.
I really mean it and you know it," he was quoted as saying by The Star on
Saturday in the article accompanying the photo of the car with his face on it.
Amid the crowded blocks in the mostly Indian historic neighborhood known as
Brickfields, Abdullah's image is hard to find, which may be another way of
residents there saying they are looking for a little something more than a
paternalistic portrait to meet their expectations of what a modern political
leader should represent.
Ioannis Gatsiounis, a New York native, is a Kuala Lumpur-based writer.
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And
so the excessive use of his portrait would seem almost counterintuitive, even
in the runup to general elections, which are expected to be held in March. "For
those who feel deprived it would seem to have the opposite of the desired
effect: 'He deprived me and now he's smiling at me'," said the president of
Transparency International Malaysia, Ramon Navaratnam.
