WHEN Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met his Cabinet colleagues on Wednesday, he told them he needed a true professional to be the Second Finance Minister.
The Prime Minister said he wanted someone who did not have to return to his constituency every weekend and be bogged down by demands from the electorate. What he did not say, but was uppermost in the minds of his listeners, was that he probably wanted a Finance Minister who did not have to submit to the pressure of party members for patronage.