A New Era

Wow, today we'll get a new Prime Minister. It is almost a surreal feeling. I'm 23 now, and as far as I can remember, I've only experienced one PM change, and it was prescripted far ahead. Mahathir was at the helm (well, helm is not really a suitable word, since it would be more fitting to describe the king, but, oh, what the hell) for so long and Malaysia prospered significantly under his reign that no one actually wanted him to step down except him himself, so he decided to give some few months ahead for the country to be ready for his resignation.

And probably because he was so good, it made his successor looked bad. Everyone has this impression that Pak Lah has inferior leadership and led to BN's worst election results, although they still won.

Well, now, to all Pak Lah's sceptics, he has stepped down.

A new era. Or is it?

About Malaysian politics, I'm never too bothered about it. Whoever takes the lead, I'm not too sure about the significant changes we will be seeing.

Is Najib a much better Prime Minister than Pak Lah? As mentioned, I'm not sure. Even during his days as various ministers and Deputy Prime Minister, I'm not overly impressed with him. OK, if not him, then who would I pick? Muhyiddin? Hishammuddin? KJ? Hamid Albar? Shahrir? (Hahah!) To be really honest, if I were to pick a PM, I would probably not pick anyone from BN. I would hate to say this, I would hate to sound pro-opposition (or anti-government, whichever) but I would probably choose Anwar. I think he's very wise and very witty. The thing is, I also thinks he's quite evil and deceitful. Not saying he's evil, I'm saying I think he's quite evil - there's a difference in those.

Nik Aziz might also be a good proposition, too. Now I really sound like an opposition, but I'm just considering all possibilities, regardless of party (although unfortunately I do consider religion and thus no non-Muslims are mentioned). But if he's the leader, he might be more of Ali Khamenei rather than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And I perceive him to be a bit too conservative, although I do agree with most of his public statements.

But why not Najib? After all, he is vastly experienced, and that is very much a requirement to become the PM. Plus, he completes the RAHMAN initials of first six PMs of Malaysia (I've heard this ever since Mahathir announced his future resignation, that this was all scripted and stuff, how naive for anyone to believe, but seriously, even during that day, you can't really see anyone else to succeed than those two). He's not really funny, but that criteria is never important. George Bush was funny. You don't want that type of funny.

As a citizen of Malaysia, why not I give my support to the new Prime Minister? Regardless of party (just to be crystal clear, I'm neither pro-government nor opposition, I just can't see significant difference between the two, and probably it can be used as an excuse that I'm still not registered as a voter) I'm a Malaysian and my leader is the Prime Minister. Just as in every Friday khutbah we always pray for the state's prosperity and a longlasting sovereignty of the Ruler, perhaps we should also pray for the best in the country's new leadership (although praying for the Ruler is much easier since he is a very neutral figure in contrast to the politicians). I hope for the best for Najib and may he prove to us that he can deliver far more than our wildest expectations.