"It could be the last of me," Malaysia PM says

By Jalil Hamid

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Friday he heard the people's voice in last weekend's watershed elections and admitted it would be "the last of him" if he doesn't live up to their expectations.

Abdullah also said he would use his "strong majority" to tackle the core election issues of inflation, crime and corruption that hammered his ruling coalition.

"I heard what the people wanted me to hear," he told Reuters and CNBC in a joint interview at his residence in Putrajaya, the nation's administrative capital.

In the wide-ranging interview, his first with foreign media since the elections, he also dismissed a call by one of his ruling party members for his resignation following the poll debacle, stressing that the majority was still with him.

"We were returned with a very strong majority ... That to me is a responsibility," the 68-year-old leader said. "I have listened to them and I know if I don't improve, that will be the last of me."

"The majority is still with me," he added. "I'm in charge."

His National Front coalition was ousted in five of Malaysia's 13 states and lost the two-thirds majority in parliament it had held for nearly four decades at the elections.

The surprise upset spooked the financial markets, with the stock market plunging nearly 10 percent on Monday partly in reaction to the political uncertainties ahead.