Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi[1] (born November 26, 1939 in Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang) is the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He is also the President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and leads the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, ‘Pak’ meaning uncle while ‘Lah’ is taken from his name Abdullah. He succeeded Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad.

After Mahathir sacked Anwar Ibrahim, he appointed Abdullah Deputy Prime Minister. Abdullah went on to succeeded Mahathir as Prime Minister in 2003. Abdullah’s administration is riddled with controversies concerning the independence of the Parliament and Judiciary. Although Abdullah was elected in 2004 with a huge mandate, he failed to fulfill his election pledge to eradicate corruption or crime. Both these ills remain rampant under his administration.

In 2005, Mahathir began challenging Abdullah on a number of issues, such as the protection of Proton, the flagship national car manufacturer, and the distribution of approval permits for importing foreign-manufactured vehicles. Later in 2006, Mahathir asserted that Abdullah had betrayed his trust, citing the projects and policies which Mahathir introduced but abolished by Abdullah, such as the construction of a bridge linking Malaysia and Singapore to replace the existing Johor-Singapore Causeway.

On February 13, 2008, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dissolved the parliament to pave way for the 12th general elections. He stated: “The king has given his consent to dissolve parliament, effective today the 13th of February, to allow the elections to be held; the states have been advised to dissolve the state assemblies on the same date.” Also, Anwar Ibrahim is disqualified to run for elections until April due to his previous convictions.

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