Many mature and thinking Malaysians have by now come to the conclusion that while PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may or may not be a good person, many other leaders and candidates of the Barisan Nasional should certainly not be supported in the coming election because they are, if elected, obstacles or stumbling blocks to reforms.

These highly controversial figures include Samy Vellu, Rafidah Aziz, Aziz Shamsuddin, Adnan Yaakob, Annuar Musa, Zainuddin Maidin, Rahim Thamby Chik, Ghafar Baba, Khalil Yaacob, Megat Junid, Nazri Aziz, Khir Toyo, Muhammad Muhd Taib, Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir and Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.

If they are included in Pak Lah's candidate list for BN, I am certain that their past records in public financial integrity, personal lifestyles and political immaturity would become hot topics among the people, backfiring on the BN team as a whole. The opposition would also certainly make use of the controversial records and backgrounds of these BN leaders and candidates to discredit BN.

Worse still, the inclusion of these controversial leaders as BN candidates would tarnish the image of Abdullah because the people will see him as being insincere, dishonest and hypocritical in his so-called anti-corruption drive. The question that will be raised by the people is simple but powerful: how would these BN leaders help Abdullah to curb corruption, cronyism and nepotism after they have been re-elected in the coming elections?

Abdul Kadir Skeikh Fadzir is also infamous in the Chinese community for repeatedly accusing the community as a whole of being "not patriotic" because they allegedly do not like to fly the national flag on Aug 31. Meanwhile, his brother Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir is also publicly notorious for threatening in 2000 to raze the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall to the ground.

If these two brothers stand in Kedah under the BN banner, they will alienate the Chinese voters. It is very difficult for even MCA or Gerakan to defend the duo.

Another two blindspots Abdullah should be alerted to are:

One, fielding his young, naive but arrogant son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin and other close family relatives as BN candidates will open the gate for public criticisms against Abdullah himself for nepotism and cronyism, and attempting to build a family empire in the party and government;

Two, allowing former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to actively and publicly campaign for BN will certainly backfire for three reasons, namely:

a) Mahathir has already long been discredited, especially in the Malay/Muslim community and his words now carry no weight at all except among a small number of diehard Umno supporters and paid party workers (including some senior editors in the official media);

b) Mahathir's confrontational, combative, prickly, passion-inflaming and paranoiac styles in attacking what he sees as "enemies" usually carry many stray bullets, hitting at swinging voters and even BN supporters alike and turning friends into real enemies as in 1999, and;

c) People would see a still weak Abdullah as still being controlled, manipulated, and protected by the still strong Mahathir. This perception would drastically undermine Abdullah's image as a post-Mahathir reformer who is bent on saving Malaysia from the legacies of corruption, nepotism and cronyism left over by Mahathir.

Worse still, people may even think that Abdullah is a witting puppet and a cover of Mahathir who determine the policies and strategies behind the new prime minister.

There is still time for Abdullah to correct their mistakes by (a) dropping all controversial leaders from BN's candidate list, especially Samy Vellu and Rafidah Aziz, (b) stop Khairy Jamaluddin and all close family members from contesting in the election and (c) bar Mahathir from publicly and actively campaigning for BN and Umno.

If all these errors and mistakes are not completely corrected before the polling day, BN as a whole will be adversely affected by its own follies.