Updated: New Malaysian First Lady, Part 3

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has finally announced his impending marriage to his sister-in-law, Jean Danker (pix taken from Screenshots), after having dismissed it as rumours earlier. This was announced by the Prime Minister's Office itself.

The news stunned some readers but it didn't come as a surprise to Sophie although she wasn't the first to write about the development in February. One of the first originators of the information was Malaysia Today, which was subsequently picked up by Sophie and others.

According to various blogs, Jean Danker was married to Osman Mahmud, who was Endon Mahmood's brother. Endon was Badawi's late wife who died less than two years ago in October 2005. But it's not known when the courtship between Badawi and Jean started. It also sounds odd for a man to marry his sister-in-law although there is no blood relation.

The Malaysian blogosphere is now abuzz with analysis of the news. Please see Malaysiakini, Rocky's Bru, and Screenshots.

Sophie has also enjoyed the spillover effect, attracting a record number of visitors today with more than 2,700 hits (Final tally: 2,888 visitors). This is way above her daily average of less than 150 visitors per day.

Update: multidimid has compiled some pix and TV video clip of the news in the public domain, but Sophie is still hoping to see a video clip of the closed-door event itself. Sophie will like to see who's there and more importantly, who isn't.

New Malaysian First Lady? Part 2

The rumour about Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi getting married to a Eurasian lady called Jean Danker or Jean Abdullah is growing stronger. The Malaysian premier has apparently told certain state leaders that the wedding is on.

According to Wikipedia, Jean Danker was married to Osman Mahmud, who was Endon Mahmood's brother. Endon was Badawi's late wife.

As mentioned in an earlier post, time will tell whether the rumour is indeed true, but we will probably never find out for sure if Badawi's late wife had indeed endorsed the union before her death from cancer last year. Did she ask Jean to take care of her husband or to marry him or both?

New Malaysian First Lady?

Malaysian blogs have been agog with speculation that Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or better known as Pak Lah has finally found a new wife although it's been in the grapevine for the last six months or so.

Susan Loone has quite an interesting synopsis of the rumour although it has yet to be established:

Malaysia-today has an interesting article on Pak Lah’s love life. It says: “Anyway, while on the subject of the Prime Minister’s wife, some say Pak Lah married Jean Danker on 22 January 2007 while others say he will be marrying her tomorrow, 22 February 2007."

Now, which one is true we do not quite know yet but she is already following Pak Lah on his overseas trips. In the trip he made to Perth to officiate his brother’s Nasi Kandar restaurant, it seems his daughter, Nori, went berserk when she found Jean in Pak Lah’s bedroom. Only after Pak Lah explained that there is nothing sinister about the whole thing because they are already married did Nori calm down and, like it or not, accept the fact that her father had remarried.

The word being spread through a whispering campaign is that, just before she died, Kak Endon had endorsed Pak Lah’s marriage to Jean.

Time will tell whether the rumour is indeed true, but we will probably never find out for sure if Badawi's late wife had indeed endorsed the union before her death from cancer last year. Did she ask Jean to take care of her husband or to marry him or both?

PS: kickdefella (who created the poster) has posted a letter to Jean Danker.