'I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.' � Charles V.
So, he is no more Mr Nice Guy, although when he took over the helm from the once 'much hated' Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he was made out to be the one whiter than snow and everyone's darling.
To win favour with the Chinese community, he sent a Lunar New Year's greeting in Chinese calligraphy just two months before the 2004 general election. Unlike his predecessor of Indian lineage who was fanatical about being a true blue Malay, he allowed the Chinese press to reveal that his maternal grandfather was a Chinese Muslim hailing from Hainan island in China.
There was a pervasive (mis)belief that he would be very different from the Chinese-sceptic Mahathir, and his PR consultants went as far as to portray him as a modern-day Justice Bao, a legendary judge in the Song Dynasty best known for his uprightness and stern judgements against the crooked and the corrupt.