KUALA LUMPUR — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who famously criticised his successor, the late Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, paid his respects to the country’s fifth prime minister whose body lay in state at the National Mosque here today.
Mahathir, 99, cited Abdullah as a dignified leader, noting in particular his willingness to step down as prime minister following shocking results for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the the 2008 general election.
Mahathir, who handpicked Abdullah to succeed him as prime minister in 2003, praised him for his statesmanship, saying he had set an example of leaders knowing when to pass the baton on to successors.
“His performance in the 2008 general election was not so good, and when many called for him to step down, he did not hesitate. He stepped down gracefully and handed over the (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak.
“This is the way it is done in Malaysia. When we retire, we leave without causing any trouble, and we hand over to our successor.
“If we can continue this practice, God willing, Malaysia will be a peaceful country. This is the example Abdullah Badawi has set,” Mahathir told reporters at the National Mosque today.
Mahathir also offered his condolences to Abdullah’s family, urging them to be patient and strong.
Abdullah died yesterday evening at the National Heart Institute. He was 85.
He stepped down as prime minister on April 2, 2009, after enduring a year of criticism from Mahathir over Barisan Nasional (BN)’s poor performance in the March 8, 2008 general election.
It was the first time BN which had ruled the country since independence, lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Mahathir had called Abdullah, fondly known as Pak Lah, a ‘flip-flop” prime minister, and had frequently criticised him for failing to follow through on certain projects, such as another bridge, dubbed the “crooked bridge” between Singapore and Johor.
Mahathir, who turns 100 in July, had also accused Abdullah of nepotism and inefficiency.
By May 2008, two months after the general election that year, Mahathir quit Umno over Abdullah’s leadership, stating that he would only rejoin the party after the latter stepped down. He rejoined the BN lynchpin party the following year, after Abdullah handed the reins over to Najib.
In the The Awakening: The Abdullah Badawi Years In Malaysia, released in 2013, Abdullah addressed his prickly relationship with Mahathir, admitting that he did not like the latter’s criticism hurled at him in public.
He said he went to see Mahathir in private to give the elder statesman a chance to air his grievances, but the latter continued to attack him in public.
He said his predecessor’s attacks only served to convince him that he should not interfere in Najib’s administration after the latter succeeded him.
“I believe that once you retire, you are retired,” Abdullah said in the book, which is a collection of essays by scholars and political observers on his administration.
Abdullah, who had also been called a “sleeping” prime minister because of photos that caught him dozing off in public, said he suffered from a sleep apnea problem, which Mahathir knew about, yet, used against him. – April 15, 2025