Premier-in-waiting Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, stepped out of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's shadow ahead of the ruling party's annual assembly tomorrow, wooing the faithful with a familiar mix of polemics and poetry.

Abdullah, dubbed "Mr Nice Guy" by his supporters, unveiled a poetic and religious streak to rival Mahathir's when he opened meetings of the women's and youth wings of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) late yesterday.

His warmly-received recitation of a poem entitled "The peace within," opened with the lines: "I seek not riches untold, to live a life of luxury."

After references to Islam, it concludes: "I live only for him, my lord; he is my companion, he is my guardian, he suffices; I live a life full of meaning immersed in the peace within."

Mahathir's poems, some of which have been set to music and sung by local stars during his 22 years in power, tend to be more political, sometimes chiding the Malay people for their failures.


Low profile

But Abdullah, 63, who has maintained a low profile since being named by Mahathir as his successor when he retires in October, proved that when it comes to rhetoric he is also prepared to scold his power-base among the majority Malays.

"Come to your senses," he told them in a strongly-worded speech warning that they were in danger of losing power.

Both Mahathir and Abdullah have expressed concern that the Malays, who make up some 60 percent of the population of 23 million, have become spoiled and lazy because of affirmative action programmes designed to make them more competitive with the economically dominant Chinese minority.

But Abdullah was also referring to disunity among the Malays, with the hardline opposition Islamic party PAS having eroded Umno's support during the last elections in 1999, and possible party infighting after Mahathir's departure.

With new elections due by the end of next year Umno, which has been in power since independence from Britain in 1957, is showing signs of nervousness.

"Do not think for a moment that Malay political power will last forever," he told delegates, pointing out that although they dominated the government and civil service, Malays lagged behind other races in economic and eduational terms.

Malay dominance

In a speech punctuated with references to Allah befitting the Islamic scholar that he is, Abdullah staked Umno's claim to being the only party which could guarantee continued Malay dominance, despite PAS's claim to religious superiority.

"If Umno loses its political power, the Malay community will not have a viable alternative," he said.

While the hardliners in PAS, who also look to the Muslim Malays for support, may dispute this, demographics mean that Abdullah is probably right.

Umno rules through a coalition of ethnic parties, while a PAS-led opposition pact collapsed when the Chinese-dominated DAP pulled out over its plans to transform Malaysia into a theocratic Islamic state complete with amputations for theft and stoning to death for adultery.

The ethnic Chinese minority, which makes up 26 percent of the population and is mainly Buddhist and Christian, thus holds the balance of power in a country where Islam is the official religion but the constitution is secular.

The Umno assembly, coming one year after Mahathir confounded the nation by announcing his resignation, is bound to be full of emotional tributes to his 22-year leadership.

But when the premier opens the congress tomorrow, he is expected to back Abdullah by focussing on the future perils for the Malays, rather than dwelling on the past. - AFP