Goodbye and goodbye. What a relief !

Yesterday, Abdullah finally

left the Putrajaya office for good. Five years and five months
of painful waiting for a saviour PM has finally ended.

Abdullah was not the man the country needed after the recklessness
of the Mahathir years. He was too easy-going, too relaxed, much
too comfortable with his surroundings, badly out of touch with the
situation on the ground and too much of a daydreamer. For him,
Putrajaya was something like a mini Mollywood or Bollywood.

Mahathir had left office leaving behind a big mess. The country
was spending more money than it could muster or pay for, and the
people were suffering from severe crime, serious corruption, big
problems in human trafficking and a political climate where the
opposing groups were ready to reach for each other's throats.
Mahathir had used the police, the courts and trumped-up charges
and the ISA laws to silence his opponents. He had alienated the
young, the educated and the minorities who were ready to support
the opposition.

But, Abdullah initially gave a glimmer of hope to the public in

2004 and the public rewarded him with a big victory. However,
hopes of better things to come never materialised. Instead, the
problems inherited from Mahathir steadily became worse. Meanwhile,
Abdullah was still in seventh heaven, busily cracking jokes, going
to parties and functions, travelling abroad and getting himself
a new wife (just shortly after his first wife passed away).

The common citizens were left fending for themselves as the crime
situation steadily worsened, with people fearing greatly for their
safety, whether they were inside or outside their homes. The number
of foreign 'workers' steadily increased, with some areas in housing
estates looking like transplanted communities brought in wholesale
from abroad. Inflation started to grow as the government failed to
spot shortages in basic necessities such as food items like flour
and edible oils. Other daily needs like transport and road tolls
were going up and traders took the opportunity to hike prices. And
in early 2008. Abdullah still daydreaming, confidently called for
general elections. Some people had voiced reservations about the
early date and the timing of the elections but they were brushed
aside. Many families were struggling with beginning-of-the-year
expenses and most glaringly, the cost of sending their children to
school had greatly risen. The prices of uniforms, shoes, and other
items were making parents dizzy, and worse, their kids were coming
home from school asking for more and more money on account that
their teachers wanted fees for this and fees for that. Everything
was compulsory as were the 'fees' and 'contributions'.

The 2008 elections became the downfall for Abdullah. The opposition
won a lot of seats from the BN incumbents and calls were made for
the PM to take responsibility. Among the voices was Mahathir, who
walked out from UMNO, and Abdullah finally had to announce that he
would step down in mid-2010. But even that was not good enough. In
the end he had to agree to leave after the UMNO general assembly
took place in March 2009.

His loyal deputy, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib, is now the new PM. Najib is
bound to be a better candidate for the post, as having Abdullah was
just like scraping the bottom of a barrel. Najib is much more serious
and he is fully aware of the enormity of his job and his obligations.
He would most likely not follow his predecessor's style, no thinking
of holidays and honeymoon periods but only work, work, work. He could
be the PM that Malaysia has been searching for all this while, though
admittedly, it's still early days and the future is still very much
unpredictable.

As for Abdullah, what a relief, he's gone. The future could only get
better from now on. Abdullah was never the right man for the job.