Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi seems to face a daunting task - filling the shoes of a man many times his political stature. Yet it is a challenge that most Malaysian second-in-commands have risen to and mastered.
Among the exceptions was Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's anointed successor until mid-1998, when the deputy began agitating for the leadership. He was charged with sodomy and corruption, found guilty of the former and jailed, and Mr Abdullah installed in his place.
Rising to power under such circumstances must be difficult for a former bureaucrat widely known as 'a nice guy'. Apart from his stint as foreign minister, most Malaysians know little else about him.
Yet that does not seem to worry them. They expect Dr Mahathir's policies to continue for some time yet.
The problem was that the tradition of a Malaysian deputy prime minister was to maintain a low profile and follow the order of his leader to the letter, political scientist Farish Noor said last week.
'Every deputy has been compliant, quiet, kept their cards close to their chest and not shown themselves until they came to power,' said Dr Noor, a researcher at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin and associate fellow with the Institute for Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur.