Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Tun Dato' Sri Haji Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi ( pronunciation  AHB-doo-lah AH-mahd bah-DAH-wee; Arabic: عبد الله بن حاجّ أحمد بدوي‎ ʿAbdullāh ibn ḥaajj Aḥmad Badawī; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and led 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 is also referred to as the "Father of Human Capital Development" (Bapa Pembangunan Modal Insan).

After Anwar Ibrahim was dismissed, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad appointed Abdullah as Deputy Prime Minister in 1999. Abdullah went on to succeed Mahathir as Prime Minister in 2003.

In the 2004 general election, Abdullah scored a significant victory. In the 2008 general election, Barisan Nasional won a slim majority of seats, but lost its two-thirds majority. He stepped down in favour of his successor, Najib Razak, during the UMNO General Assembly held on 1 April 2009. On 3 April 2009, he was succeeded by Najib Razak as prime minister. Abdullah was then conferred the title 'Tun' by His Majesty Mizan Zainal Abidin for his service to the nation.

Abdullah Ahmad

Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad (born 4 July 1937) is a Malaysian journalist and a politician. At one time, he was the editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times.

On 12 November 2003, he wrote an article criticising Saudi Arabian policies that aided the United States invasion of Iraq, among other things. As a result, the Saudi government reduced Malaysian quota for haj. On 21 November of the same year, he "was fired without warning by the daily’s management at the request of the ruling UMNO party following a complaint by the Saudi ambassador in Malaysia." UMNO, which is part of the ruling government and holding equity in the papers later stated that he had jeopardised Malaysia's close relationship with Saudi Arabia. He had a contract that was supposed to expire in October 2004.

Previously, he was close to the then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

References