Hadi Awang is Asia's 7th most powerful man.
Mahathir ranked 39th
by Mohsin Abdullah
KUALA LUMPUR,27 May ( Hrkh )
- Terengganu Menteri Besar Haji Hadi Awang has been selected Asia's seventh most powerful personality by Asiaweek magazine, way ahead of Prime Minister Dato' Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad who is at the 39th spot in the list of 50.And ranked 21 steps higher than Dr Mahathir are Malaysiakini.com founders Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran. Gan and Chandran are ranked 18 in the list which is headed by Falungong spritual leader Li Hongzhi.
This is Asiaweek's sixth annual ranking of the region's 50 most powerful people. Named Power 50, the list is published in the latest issue of Asiaweek as well as in it's website.
According to Asiaweek's Richard Hornik, the "sea change" in Asia has shaped the selection process for this year's ranking of 50 personalities "we believe are changing not just the face of Asia but its mind and soul".
By "sea change" he meant the current climate in Asia where "Asians can talk to each other unencumbered by status, subordinatates can question superiors and ideas compete on their own merit, not on the rank of their originator".
Hornik attributed that to the "advent in the past five years of the internet, e-mail and mobile phones and the continued blossoming of satellite broadcasting" which he said had "flattened" the structure of what can be labelled as "old Asia".
Asia's elders -- political, social and business leaders- said Hornik had long "clung to the strictly vertical, top down communication pattern handed down over the centuries".
"Fathers did not discuss the whys and wherefores of the strictures they imposed on their children. Rulers told citizens what was good for them. Bosses told employees how to do their jobs".
Perhaps that explains Dr. Mahathir's "poor" standing, in the Power 50 list. And hence the selection of Li as the number one personality who according to Hornik has "in just nine years built from scratch a movement numbering in the tens of millions".
"His followers are so committed to him that he has rattled China's encrusted leadership".
"In spite of Beijing's draconian steps to quash the movement - and the relatively dated technologies of audio and video cassettes used by Li's disciples - Falungong's following continues to grow," wrote Hornik in a report as a prelude to the Power 50 list.
As for Hadi, Asiaweek have this to say: "In the political struggle for the Malay soul, Hadi Awang delivers a powerful message. He speaks as deputy president and chief ideologue of Malaysia's biggest opposition party, Parti Islam Se Malaysia ( PAS )".
"He governs as chief minister of northern Terengganu state. He writes as an Islamic scholar for Harakah newspaper. And he sermonizes each week at the mosque near his home".
"Yet simpliciity, morality, compassion and humility - the fundamentals of Islam - are Hadi's calling cards".
"He practices what he preaches, spurning the chief minister's mansion to reside in the small village house in which he was raised".
"For a growing number of Malay voters, disillusioned by cronyism, corruption and crass materialism, that example speaks louder than any words".
Asiaweek note that "opponents paint Hadi 53, as a dangerous zealot determined, they say, to hide women behind veils and to ban alcohol, karaoke, gambling and everything else that smacks of decadent fun".
"But even regular attackers in the state controlled media must walk a delicate line. The electoral mood has not escaped Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ".
Calling Dr Mahathir "an avowed secularist", Asiaweek feels the Prime Mminister is now "frantically trying" to push UMNO closer to the country's Islamic mood.
That, as Asiaweek see it, is "a win win situation for PAS, which has only an outside chance of breaking UMNO's 43 year stranglehold on power at the next general poll in 2004".
And say Asiaweek, if "PAS does come through Hadi is the pick of the party bunch". Saved for the mistake on the location of Terengganu (the magazine have the state in the northern region of the country instead of eastern), such "observation" by Asiaweek is indeed a glowing tribute not only to Hadi but to components of the Alternative Front and of course to PAS itself.
That should put PAS in the "right mood" as it's members converge to the federal capital the coming week for the annual general assembly where party elections are scheduled. Incidently Hadi is unopposed for the deputy president post.
Feeling good over the rankings must also be Malaysiakini.com's Gan and Chandran.
Asiaweek view them as the "thorn in the side of of the establishment" in a Malaysia where "the truth hurts, the mainstream media rarely publish articles critical of the powers that be".
And with "less compliant organs aligned to opposition political parties, Malaysiakini is the country's only credible independent voice ".
Congratulation to Gan and friends is in order here. Ironically Malatysiakini's "nemesis" (for that matter many others surely) Dr Mahathir has been ranked way below them.
Asiaweek acknowledges that Dr Mahathir is impossible to ignore whether "you love him or hate him".
The 75 year old doctor has ruled Malaysia "with an iron hand for two decades during which has overseen the country's remarkable economic growth while always staying ahead of his political enemies".
"Lately however, his position has shown signs of weakening. The jailing of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim invigorated the opposition and even his own party members have criticized him for getting in the way of reform."
"More recently Mahathir had brandished the race card once again. Though he says he aims to build a truly modern Malaysia, some young Malaysians say he is out of tune with the times".
However Asiaweek is aware that "Mahathir has proven himself to be a wily survivor and his political rivals would be ill advised to count him out - yet".
Mahathir's 39th position also see him "losing" out to ousted Philippine president Joseph Estrada who is ranked 35.
Some consolation though. Dr Mahathir is ranked one step higher than fellow countryman Tan Sri Razali Ismail ,the former Malaysian represeantative to the UN and lovely and sexy singer Coco Lee who is ranked 42.
Comments ?
E-mail Us <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>COUNTERBALANCE.ANYWHERE.ANYTIME.ANYBODY.ANYONE.COM
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions $2 Million Sweepstakes - Got something to sell?
