Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should make the crucial transition from making strong policy statements about fighting corruption to summoning up the political will to take drastic action against the corrupt as he begins his second year in power.

Among the first individuals he should be aiming at is Adnan Yaakob, whom Abdullah had recently appointed as an Umno supreme council member after the Pahang menteri besar failed in his bid for one of the three powerful party vice-president posts.

"Abdullah should give Adnan the ultimatum of producing the proof to reveal the culprits he knew to be behind the money politics scandal in Umno or be sacked as Pahang mentri besar and as a newly co-opted Umno supreme council member," said Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.

In the aftermath of the bitter party polls, Adnan had said that he would not report any case of 'money politics' in Umno despite having accused other contestants of being involved in vote buying.

In explaining his refusing to be a whistleblower, Adnan said it was against "his principle" and he did not want "to hurt the political career of my friends".

"Abdullah must make it clear that there can be no place in his administration, whether as menteri besar or Umno supreme council member, of any person who is prepared to countenance or condone corruption, as clearly demonstrated by Adnan," Lim added.

Adnan had earlier been embroiled in a multi-million ringgit logging scandal involving a piece of land belonging to Pahang Umno.

He had denied the allegations of the state government giving the party the right to log 10,000-acre plot of pristine wetland near Pekan.

Honeymoon over

According to Lim, Abdullah's acknowledgment yesterday that the 'honeymoon' was over for the government and that the people would be less forgiving in his second year as prime minister "is a salutary relief to the paeans of first anniversary praises and glowing reports in the mainstream media, which in some cases bordered on sycophancy".

Abdullah, who is fondly known as Pak Lah, took over as the country's leader on Oct 31 last year from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Five days before Abdullah's first anniversary, Malaysia's international reputation suffered a severe blow when the country dropped 18 places in the Third Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2004 by the international press organisation, Reporters sans Frontier, from 104th last year to 122th position out of 167 countries - lower than Indonesia, which had caught up and outpaced Malaysia from last year's 117th to 110th position," lamented the opposition leader.

Lim found it "shocking" that there had been no comment or reaction from both the government and the mainstream media on the matter.

He also lambasted the deployment of 500 police officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to stop thousands of Anwar Ibrahim supporters from welcoming the former deputy prime minister, who returned from medical treatment overseas.

Lim said such allocation of police human resources defeats the aim of turning Malaysia into a 'normal country'.

"The first duty of every policeman and woman is to restore to 25 million Malaysians a crime-free society and their fundamental right to safety and security in the streets, public places and the very privacy of their homes," argued Lim.