Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi (born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister

from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, 'Pak' meaning 'Uncle' while 'Lah' is taken from his name 'Abdullah'. Abdullah was then conferred the title Tun by his majestyMizan Zainal Abidin for his service to the nation.[2] Abdullah Badawi is a former student of Bukit Mertajam High School. He studied in MBS(Methodist Boy's School) Penang for his 6th form. After failing to enrol into his first choice course, economics, Badawi opted to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies from the University of Malaya.After graduating from the University of Malaya, he joined the Malaysian Administrative and Diplomatic Corps (the formal term for the civil service). He served as Director of Youth at the Ministry of Youth and Sport as well as secretary of the National Operations Council (MAGERAN). He resigned in 1978 to become the member of parliament for his constituency of Kepala Batas in northern Seberang Perai (which had also been represented by his late father), which he still represents today. Early during Mahathir's tenure as prime minister, a bitter dispute erupted within the ruling UMNO party and it was divided into two camps, which were colloquially known as 'Team A' comprising Mahathir loyalists, and 'Team B', which supported former Minister of Finance Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam. Mahathir prevailed, leading to the exclusion of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah from the newly-established UMNO (Baru) or New UMNO. Abdullah was a close supporter of his political mentor Musa Hitam in Team B and as a result, he was sacked from his post of Minister of Defence in the cabinet. He did not join Semangat 46 (Spirit 46) party which was set up by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Semangat 46 is now defunct. When UMNO (Baru) was formed in Feb 1988, the then UMNO President and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad brought Abdullah into the protem committee of UMNO (Baru) as the Vice President. In 1990, Abdullah retained his seat as Vice President. During the Cabinet reshuffle in 1991, Mahathir brought him back into the Cabinet as Foreign Minister. He held this post until November 1999 whenSyed Hamid Albar succeeded him. Even though he lost his Vice Presidency in the 1993 UMNO elections, he remained in the Cabinet and was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to 1998, he had also served as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He completed his probation when he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia and Minister of Home Affairs following the dismissal of Anwar Ibrahim. Upon coming into power as prime minister, Abdullah Badawi promised to clamp down on corruption, thus empowering anti-corruption agencies and providing more avenues for the public to expose corrupt practices. He also arrested several public figures from the Mahathir era for corruption, a move which was widely applauded by the public. He advocated an interpretation of Islam known as Islam Hadhari, which advocates the intercompatibility between Islam and economic and technological development. His administration emphasized a revival of the Malaysian agricultural sector.. Abdullah Badawi also focused on Malaysia's internal security after the increase in corrupt practices, such as bribery, in the Law enforcement in Malaysia. Upon coming into power as prime minister, Abdullah Badawi clamped down on corruption, giving more power to anti-corruption agencies and making it easier for the public to reveal corrupt practices to the authorities. He has also arrested several Mahathir-era cronies on charges of corruption, a move which was widely applauded by the public. He advocated an interpretation of Islam known as Islam Hadhari, which maintains that Islam and economic and technological development are not incompatible. Abdullah Badawi is unofficially known as Pak Lah (Malay diminutive for "Uncle Abdullah"). The Malaysian government issued a statement that the prime minister should not be referred to by this nickname in official articles and in newsprint; however, the nickname was still used informally. In fact, Abdullah Badawi often used that nickname to refer to himself during public gatherings. Abdullah Badawi was heavily involved in foreign policy making. He was the chairman of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference since the start of his premiership in 2003. As of 2005, he was the chairman of the ASEAN. He also served as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement from October 2003 until September 2006 Abdullah Badawi declared an end to the economic legacy and grandiose projects of his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, during the 57th UMNO General Assembly. He told delegates that he would not pursue the economic strategies adopted two decades ago by Mahathir. He said that in the past, wealth was generated not by innovation and creativity, but by foreign investment, government contracts, and privatization.

Agriculture and biotechnology are some of the highlighted issues in 9MP that the government believes such sectors are still able to generate wealth for many Malaysians, especially those in rural areas. In late 2005, Badawi successfully led Malaysia into a historic free trade agreement with Japan enabling the two countries to scrap tariffs on essentially all industrial goods and most agricultural, forestry and fishery products within a decade. [6] Under the Abdullah Badawi administration, the country is moving down to a value chain economy by developing its inherent strengths in agriculture without losing its existing manufacturing base.[7]However, Abdullah has been criticized as to his handling of the sudden hikes in the price of petrol and electricity through the restructuring of government subsidies, especially as it is detrimental to Malaysia's position as a traditional exporter. On 31 August 2007, Abdullah Badawi shouted 'Merdeka!' during the midnight celebrations of Malaysia's 50 years of nationhood. The celebrations were held at Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur, where thousands of people had congregated. This was a symbolic gesture which emulated the actions of Malaya's first Prime Minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, when the latter declared independence from the British in 1957.[8] Abdullah Badawi won a second term as Prime Minister by winning the 12th General Election, held in March 2008, with a reduced majority. He also lost four additional states to the opposition (Kedah,Penang, Perak and Selangor). Although his party, Barisan Nasional, suffered a major setback, Abdullah Badawi vowed to fulfill the promises in his manifesto amid calls from Mahathir, the opposition and even among UMNO members for him to resign. However, his deputy, Najib Razak, and others in his party voiced unreserved support for his leadership. [9] It took a while before open dissent started brewing at grassroots levels, with petition and campaigns being launched to ask for his resignation.[10] He was sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister on 10 March 2008. [11] Badawi unveiled a streamlined 68-member Cabinet 18 March 2008, dropping half the ministers in his previous administration and keeping the crucial finance portfolio for himself. [12] Abdullah faced a political crisis not only from the onslaught of the Opposition which gained much ground by taking the richest and most important states (Selangor and Penang, which incidentally is the hometown of Abdullah Badawi). He also faced growing discontent from within his own ranks in the UMNO party. The son of the former premier, Mukhriz Mahathir, openly called for him to step down. The UMNO Youth chief, Hishammudin did not take any action against Mukhriz and dismissed it as a personal opinion. Abdullah was under heavy pressure to step down after many within his UMNO party including former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammad openly asked him to take full responsibility on the dismal performance during the 12th general election in March 2008. He initiated two significant changes in the system after the general election by declaring the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) to be fully independent and initiated judicial reform proceedings in the aftermath of the V.K. Lingam Royal Commission of Inquiry. There were many ideas from the government MPs and opposition MPs. Some MPs suggested that the live telecast should not be scrapped to let the people know what was really happening in the Dewan Rakyat and judge the MPs in conducting the people's voice in the parliament. The live telecast of the proceedings is to be continued to show that there is transparency and to let the people know how the MPs are behaving and debating. On 19 May 2008, the dispute between Mahathir and Abdullah reached a "shocking" stage when Dr Mahathir, who had served as UMNO President for 22 years, announced that he was quitting the party after having lost confidence in Abdullah Badawi's leadership, and that he would only rejoin the party after Abdullah had stepped down as UMNO President and Prime Minister. On 15 September 2008, Abdullah's cabinet Minister in Prime Minister Department Senator Datuk Zaid Ibrahim submitted his resignation letter to the Prime Minister. He tendered his resignation as a protest to the government's action in detaining a blogger, a member of parliament and a reporter under the Internal Security Act. Abdullah later accepted his resignation. On 10 July 2008, Abdullah announced he would step down as UMNO President and Prime Minister in June 2009. Abdullah Badawi handed his resignation letter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 2 April 2009. The Deputy Prime Minister, Najib, was officially sworn in as the Prime Minister the following day. Abdullah was then conferred with a "Tun" title by the Agong. [14] Nevertheless, shortly before he resigned, Najib gave promises to Abdullah that his constituency in Kepala Batas would continue to receive development funds, where he would continue to serve as its Member of Parliament.[15]