TUN ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI – THE GENTLEMAN PRIME MINISTER

BANYAK kenangan saya bersama Pak Lah. Ya, ketika dia menjadi Menteri Pelajaran dari tahun 1984 sehingga dilantik sebagai Perdana Menteri ke 5.

Semenjak dahulu lagi, saya menyapa Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sebagai Pak Lah, melainkan ketika Pak Lah bersama pembesar-pembesar negara luar atau di sidang akhbar antarabangsa or when protocol dictates we address him accordingly.

Calling him Pak Lah was not a sign of disrespect. On the contrary, it was a sign of respect.

Saya menganggap Pak Lah sebagai seorang bapa yang mengambil pendekatan lembut terhadap sesuatu. Pertuturannya lembut, non-confrontational. He was terribly modest, soft spoken and averse to speaking ill of others. Sukar sebenarnya untuk tidak menyukai dan tidak menyayangi Pak Lah.

Ada yang mengatakan bahawa sifat-sifat seorang gentleman seperti ini adalah satu kelemahan terutamanya bagi mereka yang berkecimpung dalam politik dan Kerajaan but not to Pak Lah. These were actually endearing traits.

My respect and admiration for Pak Lah grew with time. It was when he became the Foreign Minister in 1991 that I got to know him well. Although I was with Business Times at that time, I was covering foreign affairs and policy. My first overseas trip with Pak Lah was to Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan in 1997 when we were part of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s official entourage to these two countries.

He was Foreign Minister for eight years (1991 – 1999) before Dr Mahathir appointed him as Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister.

Before becoming the Foreign Minister, Pak Lah served under Mahathir’s administration as a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (1981 – 1984), Education Minister (1984 – 1986) and Defence Minister (1986 – 1987) and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister (1999-2003). He was Prime Minister from 2003 until he stepped down from office on 1 April 2009.

There will always be a smile on that craggy face, but there were two occasions in my entire career where I caught him looking utterly distraught and was at a loss as to what to do.

The first was at a late afternoon meeting he had with newspaper editors at the height of the Al Maunah incident in 2000. “What do we do?” I remembered him asking. He was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. I felt out of place as I was the only non-editor at the meeting. He had briefed us on the incident and the discussion centred on how best the media can write about the incident.

The second time was when we were in Japan in 2008, where we received the devastating news on Pedra Branca. Pak Lah, then Prime Minister, was at an official dinner when the news came in. It was close to midnight when he returned from the dinner. The KL office was waiting for an immediate reaction. Face crestfallen, there was a long pause before he spoke.

And I had the privilege of flying in the government jet with Pak Lah from Pattaya to Hua Hin in Thailand a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister in 2009. We were in covering Pak Lah on a slew of Asean meetings. It would have taken us four hours by car from Pattaya to Hua Hin, via Bangkok. On the jet, it was under an hour. I asked, via his press secretary then Datuk Ainon Mohd, if the BH reporter and I could hitch a ride on the jet. He said yes. He saw us already in the plane when he boarded. "Pandai you all ya," he said. We laughed.

He stepped down after a less-than-expected electoral performance in 2008, a decision that reflected his humble and self-reflective nature.

In Pak Lah, his successors found no trouble. He never interfered in the work of his successor/s. He believed that they have their own way of doing things and that they should have the freedom to resolve any problems.

After retirement from active politics, Pak Lah retreated to a more sedate life. He has been seen driving one of his classic cars sans bodyguards.

I bumped into him once at Bangsar Shopping Centre, walking alone, although I know his bodyguards were not too far away from him. He saw me, his face broke into a grin, we chatted. He was on his own, “Jeanne sibuk di rumah,” he said, adding that he was meeting some friends there. We parted wishing each other well.

I knew he was unwell and his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin confirmed in 2022 that Pak Lah had dementia. I saw photos of him in his former press secretaries’ Facebook posts whenever they visited him.

Dementia may have robbed Pak Lah of his mental capacity but he remained a respected leader, a beloved stateman. His contributions to the nation will be remembered for years to come.

Semoga Pak Lah kecapi damai abadi yang Pak Lah cari. Al Fatihah.