It is a funny time for Malaysians, or rather, Malaysians are a funny people.

The changing of the premiership of a country is usually the cause of much discussion and analysis, but in the light of three exciting upcoming by-elections, the G20 Summit in London and Internet service providers causing problems (from what we gather on Twitter), bloggers are strangely silent on the topic.

Today, we saw our fifth Prime Minister, Abdullah "Mr Nice Guy" Badawi head to Istana Negara to submit his letter of resignation to the King and to discuss a power transition plan. Shortly after he left, Najib Razak, who is to be sworn in as prime minister tomorrow, was seen heading into the palace.

A few bloggers picked up on the story from online media, citing reports and leaving their own little commentaries.

In an eleventh-hour post, PH Chin expressed his hope that the King will decide wisely with regard to choosing the country's next premier. "We the rakyat want a person who is beyond reproach and commands the confident of the majority of the Members of Parliament," wrote the blogger.

Some netizens were sad to see Pak Lah go.

BloggerMun was one such person, who was "really affected by having to bear witness, in my lifetime, of great statesman Abdullah Badawi." The blogger talked about Pak Lah's charisma and wisdom, and refuted claims that Pak Lah was a "failed politician", adding that he may one day be remembered as the best prime minister for uniting the country with his "One Malaysia" concept.(Najib has a similar theme, see the rest of the story below for details).

Others described a feeling of relief, like Ibn Juferi. The blogger, in a short post, was deeply unsympathetic towards Pak Lah. "It was never a good idea to put up a career civil servant with a perchance for sleeping during meetings as Prime Minister anyway," he wrote. "I’ll bet that even my dad can do a better job as PM if that were the case."

Utba Mahmood, a Singaporean blogger, threw in his two cents' worth that Abdullah had done "a great job in his administration" for carrying out the task of giving Malaysians greater freedom of speech. "All the best in your administration!" he added, with sincere congratulations to incoming Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Strangely, Singapore seems to be a recurrent theme. Stocktube, a blog devoted primarily to economics and finance, posted a funny picture relating to Najib and his team mooting Abdullah's One Malaysia slogan.

After all, Najib's own blog is called 1Malaysia, and he did talk about the importance of the One Malaysia message in a speech at the Sin Chew Daily offices, a video of which you can watch here. 

Stocktube also talked about what Najib needs to do to remain in favour of the rakyat, especially the non-bumiputeras. "Outside of UMNO the Chinese and Indian voters are still fuming mad especially the Perakians. He needs to create hopes and promises," the blogger wrote.

Again, from Singapore, the blog WayangParty posted an article from the Straits Times about Pak Lah's legacy, adding as a post script that Pak Lah was a man that was "too decent" to be Malaysia's prime minister.

"Though he had failed to carry out his promised reforms, none of his successors will come close to him in liberalizing political space in the Malaysia. History will take a kinder view of him in many years to come," they predicted.

In a final Singapore-related posting, the blog MalaysiaUpdate posted another article by the Straits Times on how Abdullah will be remembered as "Malaysia's Gorbachev", referring to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms unleashed democratic changes that led to the break-up of the Soviet Union.

It is an interesting parallel drawn there, and one that none of the political or economic commentators The Edge Malaysia talked to drew in our piece "Pak Lah's Report Card".

Blogger Cai reckoned that in terms of his legacy, Pak Lah will be remembered as "the Father of Liberalisation or Bapa Keterbukaan". "Under Abdullah’s tenure, the Malaysian political climate has been liberal as never before," the blogger opined.

"If Abdullah is compared to his predecessors, his record of free speech and openness clearly stands above theirs. Thus, Abdullah’s five years in power have proven to be the most liberal in Malaysian history and Malaysians will no doubt remember him for this," Cai added.

We know what netizens think of Pak Lah bidding us a fond farewell, but of Najib coming into office, the bloggers have yet to say their piece.

After all, Najib did make a plea to the public towards the end of the Umno General Assembly last week: “Please judge me by my actions. Give me the chance to take office.”