Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should be the lord of all he surveys: his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is returned to office with 90 percent of constituencies, unseated one state of two in opposition hands, in the March general elections; he is returned as Umno president, with a near perfect 99.99 percent of nominations. Now, in Washington, he charms President Bush and tells him a thing or two about global and Middle East realities.

Any of these should have affirmed him as Malaysia's undisputed leader. It has not. The general election results are incontestable; his rise to power unchallengeable; his visit to Washington proof of his statesmanship.

But if a foreign government out of the pale, say in the Middle East or Afghanistan or an enemy in the ubiquitous US-UK war on terror, or before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, were to announce election results as Pak Lah's, it would have been subject to global sanctions, with smug and self-serving editorials, even in the New Straits Times and the Star, of how this electoral atrocity is proof that the systems it represents is hell.

Instead, we had is a chorus on the will of the people fulfilled, of Umno's commitment to democratic principles, the improbable result yet proof of Umno's maturity. If you dig up the archives, you would find copious examples of despots and dictators mouthing similar sentiments after similar results. And how the "free" leaders of the world condemned them as how the Iraqis who question the US-UK invasion of their country are.