What Malaysia needs to be on the next trajectory of development is a leader who can execute, not someone content with delivering sermons. The nation needs a chief executive with vision and who can perform, not a pope with put-on piety and who is busy dispensing homilies.

In his first 100 days, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi issued no less than a dozen major policy edicts. He declared his "zero tolerance" for corruption, red tape, and inefficiency, and called for a revolution in education and modernisation of the rural sector.

He exhorted Malaysians to work with and not for him, and not be afraid to tell him the truth. He certainly uttered all the right rhetoric and Malaysians, long yearning for a change, cheered him on.

Thus far it has all been just that simply rhetoric, or more bluntly put, hot air.

Malaysiakini

cartoonist Zunar accurately captures the essence in a cartoon depicting the prime minister yelling a stream of "zero tolerance for", leading to a series of diminishing 'Zzzs' to a dozing Abdullah sitting on a vastly over-sized chair. He looked like a kid who had been given permission to try on his daddy's big chair, and had exhausted himself in relishing the experience. Reluctantly, three months later, I too agree with Zunar.

The prime minister's press conferences are fast degenerating into a love fest; the editors groping for adulatory prose, and he consumed with feel-good vibes .

'Set priorities'

Instead of issuing endless grand promises of what he wants to do, a better strategy would have been to concentrate on few key problems. Success in one area would then spill over to others. The obvious priorities are corruption and the police force, as both are related. Meanwhile let the education minister worry about starting a revolution in education.

The long delay in announcing the members and terms of references for the Royal Commission on the Police diminishes the impact of the prime minister's decision. Had he done it sooner, the formidable commission would have created quite a buzz and convey a sense of decisiveness and action.

While everyone has praised him for creating the commission, conveniently forgotten is the fact that the deterioration of the force occurred during Abdullah's tenure as home minister. What took him this long to find out what is common knowledge? Equally significant, what actions did he take as home minister to remedy the situation?

When the prime minister declared that he wanted to hear the truth, some made the mistake of taking him seriously, much to their sorrow.

New Straits Times

group editor-in-chief Abdullah Ahmad was unceremoniously dumped after he dared write the truth as he saw it. There were many reasons for canning him not least, his inability to stem the decline of that publication.

However, to publicly state - as the prime minister did - that the sacking was over an editorial, made a mockery of his earlier commitment to wanting to hear the unvarnished truth.

Soon after his appointment last November, the prime minister made a 'surprise' visit (with much hoopla and the press in tow) to the immigration department and voila! that agency was miraculously transformed to an epitome of efficiency. That is, if we can believe the mainstream media. If only the administrative problems of the civil service could be solved merely with such visits.

'Killer weapon'

One picture widely distributed is of the prime minister leading a prayer. The word among the Umno faithful is that this will be their secret 'killer weapon' against PAS in the coming elections Abdullah the imam 'out Islam-ing' Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the PAS spiritual leader.

The prime minister is not content with being just a secular leader, now he wants to lead Malaysians to the hereafter too. I envision a raging battle during the campaign between the two on who can deliver the mother of all sermons.

To modify Samuel Johnson's dictum, religion is the last refuge of scoundrels. Except in this case, it is the first.

Abdullah's long delay in naming Umno vice-president and Defence Minister Najib Razak as deputy prime minister was nothing more than a contrived attempt at manufactured suspense.

He desperately wanted to give an appearance that it was a choice made only after the greatest deliberation, and free from his predecessor's influence. To me he looked indecisive and uncertain.

Two of his major economic decisions are widely praised: the cancellations of the railway double-tracking project and sale of the Bakun dam project to politically well-connected tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary (for failure to meet conditions of the agreement).

Both are crucial infrastructure projects. Double-tracking means more than just doubling the number of tracks; it would vastly expand capacity as the traffic can then flow in both directions simultaneously. As for the Bakun Dam, hydro-electricity is a proven cheap and renewable source of clean energy.

The idea is not simply to cancel projects that is a cop out and requires no thinking but rather to determine how to make them economically viable. Scale down the projects (as being considered with Bakun, but which is not possible with double-tracking) and have truly competitive open bidding to get the best price.

I have no doubt that in the end the project and its bloated costs will resume, and the original contractors will be smiling again. All these exercises are nothing more than an attempt at going through the motion, a staged drama or sandiwara , much as the decision to pick Najib.

Like many, I was impressed with Abdullah's early strings of declarations: Zero tolerance for corruption, inefficiency, and red tape. Or as Zunar put it in his other delicately humorous cartoon: Abdullah is for Integrity, Sincerity, Accountability ISA!

'Get coaching'

To his credit, Abdullah had at least acknowledged the problems facing the nation. To borrow a metaphor from golf, his favourite game, he has his down swing right, but he is not hitting the ball right, and his upswing is wobbly. To keep his handicap low, he must pay attention to his game and submit to competent coaching.

Likewise, solving Malaysia's many problems requires hard and smart work (good swing and follow through), recruiting the best talent (the right club), and above all, the willingness to learn from others (competent coaching). Abdullah recognises that the course has changed, but he keeps using the same old clubs he inherited from Mahathir, and hitting the ball in the same old direction.

Abdullah is very perceptive and has excellent people skills; that is, he has high EQ (Emotional Quotient). He demonstrated this in his personal encounters with Singapore's leaders, and by his decision to unilaterally suspend work on that silly loopy bridge to replace the causeway.

As a person, he reminds me of former US president Ronald Reagan, who was often ridiculed for his less-than-formidable intellect, but who knew exactly which direction to take his country, and picked the best talent to carry out his mission.

If Abdullah sticks to the talent pool that was bequeathed to him by his predecessor, he risks becoming more like that other American president Jimmy Carter, pleasant enough man but totally ineffectual.

We can help nudge Abdullah to be more like a Reagan and less like a Carter by being more critical and less concerned with heaping praises on him. We would also serve the man and our nation well by doing so.

M BAKRI MUSA is a surgeon in Silicon Valley, California and the author of The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia . His views on Malaysia can be stated thus: Ours is a diverse nation; we can accept and celebrate this reality or by default, it becomes a liability.