Not destined for high office

Boe mia li chea tian.

The above Chinese (Penang Hokkien) saying means 'not destined to (sit on) ascend to the throne' (to wit, the political throne where hereditary ascendancy is/was not involved).

In other words the person does/did not have the karma to be a PM or President.

The saying only applies or applied to people who have (had) the qualifications, ability and positional potential to be a PM or President.

Well, No 1 on our list has to be Hilary Rodham Clinton. She was not only the First Lady of the USA when her husband was the President, but she was also a senator and secretary of state.

Hilary has all the necessary experience to be America's President, but she lost to a real estate agent who was a terrible liar, a scoundrel, a bigot who has zero experience in government.

Second on our list would be Kim Beazley of Australia. A Rhode scholar, he was DPM to Paul Keating, Labor Party's PM candidate after Keating, held all sorts of ministerial posts with bags and bags of experience plus a formidable knowledge on foreign affairs but lost to John Howard of the Coalition in elections.

Subsequently, when Howard's popularity was diminishing and Kim stood a damn good chance of becoming PM, he was replaced in a party putsch by a relatively younger upstart who was discovered to be notorious for his alleged ultra political narcissism, namely, Kevin Rudd, a name best forgotten by most Aussies, wakakaka, though Rudd did go on to be PM.

Then, in Malaysia we had Ku Li - I needn't go into history to tell you how he lost in somewhat questionable circumstances in the UMNO party election. Alas, Boe mia li chea tian.

If you like, I suppose you could also add Anwar Ibrahim to the list. He missed out on the cusp of his ascendancy to the PM post, alas, forevermore. He was let down by his own impatience.

And also that of Tun Dr Ismail, probably the best PM we never had. He passed away before we could benefit more from his amazing ability.