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Yes, the 'fourth floor boys' have returned PDF Print
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Thursday, 02 July 2009 01:12

(Malaysian Mirror) - Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who had accused his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of being ill-advised and influenced in his decisions by a band of ‘fourth floor boys’, said a similar kind of group has surfaced in the current administration.

“I don’t know what floor they are on. I think there is some evidence,” he said at a media conference after launching the malaysianmirror.com news portal here on Tuesday.

The former prime minister, who is now Malaysia’s most famous blogger, was asked if such a group now exists to advise Najib Abdul Razak, who took over the helm of the Government and the Umno presidency from Abdullah in March.

Young and smart

The news portal, in a news commentary, had said that Najib’s concept of 1Malaysia could have been conceived by a group of advisors similar to the ‘fourth floor boys’ of Abdullah’s time and could have come from outside the Umno boardrooms.

The online paper speculated that among other key decisions that had allegedly not gone well among party members was the abolishment of the Ministry of Entrepreneurial and Co-operatives Development.

His attempt to bring a third bridge to link Johor and Singapore also backfired when the Sultan of Johor, supported by the assemblymen of the state, rejected the idea.

In his brief era, Abdullah was allegedly advised by a team of relatively young officers with sound knowledge on current affairs, with good business acumen and good networking skills as well as being very media savvy.

Which floor now?

They were said to have operated from a floor below the fifth level of the Prime Minister’s office in Putrajaya and allegedly very authoritative in their ways to the extent that anyone who wanted to meet their ‘boss’ had to first be screened by them.

In other words, if the ‘fourth floor boys’ were not convinced about the nature of the planned meeting, the visitor would not get to go to the upper floor.

Dr Mahathir, who gave them the label, had accused them of using their talents and close links with Abdullah to influence decisions and policies in Umno and the administration.

Commenting on the possibility that the ghostly group has resurfaced, he said: “There are people like the ‘fourth floor boys.’ (They are of) the same category. But which floor? I don’t know.”

Comments (13)Add Comment
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written by Oscar Winner, July 02, 2009 01:53:38
The return of the Fourth floor boys,
Solely to strategise for the C4 boss.
MCA MIC have no say as they have no balls,
While these boys quietly plan PR's downfall.
Smart, protected, and always walking tall,
They will also plan for their own windfall......
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written by Mama Juwie, July 02, 2009 02:04:31
Two of Najib's so-called Fourth Floor Boys: Omar Ong & Khairil Annas Jusoh.
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written by MalaysianUnited, July 02, 2009 02:20:11
Yea la Tun M,

Barang sesiapa yang tidak mengikut haluan anda, akan dilabel macam2 gelaran.
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written by rajaphillips, July 02, 2009 04:04:36
Ya lah Mahathir, this type of politics (by patronage, cronyism and nepotism) is your culture, started during your time by you and it is flourishing today because of you so what are you grumbling about. Blame yourself for this roti chanai type of politics!
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written by krising1, July 02, 2009 05:53:12
Tun had his own group of boys as advisors - Lingam and gang being one of them who controlled judicial appointments. Pak Lah had the fourth floor. Najib and wife have their own advisors. This has been an established UMNOputra modus operandi. However, this team you are now taking on is not passive like Pak Lah. They have C4 experts at their beck and call. So just take note and take care.
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written by OilMan, July 02, 2009 05:55:58
I bet Mahathir has more than one floor of advisors during his time.He sets the trend and his cronies can only follow because BN never change and learn.
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written by alpha100, July 02, 2009 07:13:25
He must take advise from me! He must consult me and no others!
Come on! All PM need 4th floor boys as you call them! Even President Obama have them! Guess what irks you is he did'nt consult you! smilies/grin.gif
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written by bexe, July 02, 2009 09:15:12
Of course TDM had his advisers but they were not anywhere close to Oxford or Cambridge, with the exception of AK. A few names come to mind Diam, Abdullah Ang (my god!), Vincent Tan, Lingam, Mathias, and other clowns. The problem with TDM is that his ego wouldn't have allowed for anyone smarter than him be around. In otherwords he could never "hire uo" - hire someone smarter than him.
The key question is not the smarts you hire but do you know how to use those smarts?
Badawi didn't have a clue, and Najis would probably use the brain power to devise devious strategies.
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written by budaktapah, July 02, 2009 09:25:28
dear TDM...you are mis-informed lah. Not "fourth floor boys"..but "fourth floor mama" lahhh...mama with no 's' please....
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written by cheemengwong, July 02, 2009 09:46:03
Why is there no man but all boys? Are these boys still in diapers or being cared for by their Lost Mah Mah?

Najis/shit is everywhere in chow kit... be careful not to step on it.
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written by arazak, July 02, 2009 09:50:44
Heard Najis has a PR Agency to prop up his image and formulate new stratigies for him. The problem is whatever the Agency proposed and implement all backfired. . ., "One Malaysia"? This agency is really wasting the tax-payers money!

On the other hand, he has Big Fat Mama has his teamate. That was what Lee Kuan Yew said.

Whatever it is, Najis could not use his own brain to do the thinking!
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written by utuhganal, July 02, 2009 09:55:52
the first nine comments are brainy. congratulations.

the last two are reflections of unrecognisable species. condolence.
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written by Orang Muda, July 02, 2009 14:02:33
Guys,

I feel we need to be very careful with this kind of news. It's purely speculation without firm evidence. It seems to me what Tun said is that he just speculates.

First and foremost, there is nothing wrong for a leader of a country to seek advice from professionals. It's actually good because many of these people are well meaning, more experienced and would speak their mind if they feel the leader is going a wrong path. They are impartial in their political stand.

I personally have heard of certain group from the corporate whom the ex-PM (Abdullah badawi) and the DPM (at that time was Najib) sought advices on certain issues. What I know is that these people are men of characters with noble reputation, and don't have political agenda. They are trying hard to advice our leaders as professional, although it is not always an easy task.

PM and DPM are powerful people and sometime they have their own mind and might not take the full advice from the consultants. Najib might have a few different groups like that and that his idea of 1 malaysia probably was formed as result of different opinions from different groups.

As someone from the branding industry, I know how hard it is to be a consultant to the government and that a lot of stories circulated around on the net are not necessary the full pictures.( You just know because you happened to have the full pictures behind the scene, or at least know someone who does)

Sometime those from the government might take an idea from you and went ahead to implement it according to their way, without your full participation and the result just turned out to be something else in the end. You can't blame the consultants in this instance. In fact this is what often happen to corporate clients. Those of us who are involved in consultancy would understand what I am talking about.

Even Tun himself used to seek advice from international ad agency, and we really don't know what transpired between the consultants and Tun. It's too dogmatic for outsiders like us to conclude that all their ideas are bad. Many of these ideas could be very constructive which resulted in the country enjoying the benefit untill today. Tun used to surround himself with experts from the corporate, architecture, branding, engineering, finance, religions etc... and many of these people gave him really good advices.

One of them is Syeb Akbar Ali, the blogger and writer. In his own book, Mr Syed told a story of him and a few others who advised Tun on a religious matter and Tun took their advice and acted accordingly, and it turned out to be something really benefited the nation. Although I personally don't always agree with everything Syed Ali wrote about on his blog and it's obvious that he is pro-UMNO, I however think he does have some good ideas from time to time.

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