Borrowed Time

Indeed, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi IS on borrowed time, as Nuraina Samad wrote in her blog. And this borrowed time doesn’t look like it can be renewed any longer.

He’s walking on thin wire, this old man who likes calling himself Pak Lah. The people who are supposed to be backing him up the most, meaning the members of UMNO, are almost racing to stab him in the back. He has lost the confidence of the rakyat, and he’s losing more of it from his own party.

Personally, I have nothing against this old man. Probably because I was pretty ignorant about the goings on when I was still in Malaysia (they say ignorance is bliss?). I never knew of the existence of this man until he became the deputy PM, and it wasn’t long before he became the PM of Malaysia.

I wasn’t around in the country to know much about how he was managing the country, and not informative enough to hear any hearsay or rumours about him and his cronies. I didn’t hear much about the dissatisfaction of the rakyat towards Pak Lah. In fact, I don’t think I heard, read, or thought much about it.

But that’s all in the past. Him winning the 2004 GE with a HUGE margin is also in the past. What’s important of course is the now and the future. The past is only good for learning mistakes from. Very important step, this one. I wonder if Pak Lah has done that yet?

Everyone is saying that Pak Lah has horrible advisors who are pushing him into the swamp. That these advisors should all be hanged. That if Pak Lah fired all these “idiots”, then probably, he would do a better job at being the PM.

But lost confidence and lost trust are things that almost always never return. Once bitten, twice shy. Even children who have been betrayed take time to regain their trust towards the betrayer. And we’re not talking about children here. We’re talking about full-grown adults who put too much thought into things, and who hold grudges like there’s no tomorrow. So no, once that trust is lost, you can’t just go to “Lost and Found”, and expect to find it there.

I don’t believe that Pak Lah is all bad. Sure, there are tons of stuff going around on the Internet about his “not-so-clean” actions, and plenty of under-the-table deals. But I tend to take all this in with a pinch of salt. And somehow, I believe Pak Lah to be the lesser of two evils, comparing with his predecessor, Tun Dr Mahathir.

If he takes drastic actions NOW, without any further delay, there may be some saving of his face, pride and dignity. Probably he would go down without the hatred that so many people harbour towards him now. But I doubt he can do much, given the current circumstances.

So much to do, and so little time. And this borrowed time of his is very quickly ticking away.

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