Background
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was born on November 26, 1939 in Penang.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was born on November 26, 1939 in Penang.
Bukit Mertajam High School
In 1964, he graduated from the University of Malaya with a degree in "Islamic Studies."
After graduating, Abdullah Badawi joined the civil service. His further professional career was connected with it: he worked in the Ministry of Public Service (1964 - 1969), in the National Security Council (1969-1971), in the Ministry of Culture, in the Ministry of Youth and Sports (1971 - 1974), served as Deputy Minister of Federal territories, was the Minister of Education and Minister of Defense.
When Badawi headed the department of Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, to promote the intellectual and physical development of youth dozens of new projects were created. "Beliya Peladang" is a program for young people living in the villages which shortly became a major youth project. Badawi was also the initiator of the program, which was designed to attract young people into business. Due to the launching of the project "Youth in Business" a lot of young people became successful entrepreneurs.
In 1978, Badawi won parliamentary elections for his constituency of Kepala Batas. Since then, he had been elected to parliament.
In 1991, he returned to government as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1991-1999). He managed to combine this post with the duties of the Deputy Prime Minister. In October 2003, having won the elections, he became Prime Minister of Malaysia.
As Prime Minister Badawi focused all his attention on the most significant: the fight against corruption and abuse of power. He had already succeeded in this realm. It was his idea to create Anti-Corruption Academy, which he suggested on the ASEAN summit (10 members of ASEAN plus Japan), which was held in Tokyo. According to Badawi’s conviction, Academy (its opening in Kuala Lumpur is scheduled for late 2005) has to become a regional center for training of highly qualified personnel to identify and root out corruption in the Pacific region.
In international relations, Badawi supports the leading role of the United Nations, which in his opinion, should be the main forum for the thorny international problems, among which he calls the solution to the conflict between the Christian West and the Muslim world. "There are common values in our religions: peace, wealth, collaboration - emphasizes Abdullah Badawi. - The Palestinian question or the conflict in Iraq - not just the Muslim issue, it's a matter of concern for the whole world ... " At the same time he refrains from direct criticism of the U.S. military actions, as the U.S. is a major economic partner of Malaysia. In domestic politics the prime minister advocates for increasing investment in the Malaysian economy - both external and internal. Including for account of development of the domestic stock market.
Badawi is a deeply religious man. In Islam, he sees religion that carries people the idea of good, moderateness in everything and tolerance. According to him, Islam is not an obstacle to the development of democracy, as it propagates self-respect and respect for other religions, cultural and ethnic groups. For example, just two weeks after taking office (31 October 2003), the prime minister criticized Islamic extremists, calling the attacks against the people of another religion a disgrace to Islam. On December 25, 2003, all Christian communities of the country (approximately 1500) received congratulations to Christmas on his behalf. It was the first action of that kind in the history of the country.
