Ku Li takes on Galas election director post, meets Najib on Mon

Malaysia Chronicle

As expected, Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has agreed to be his party's election director for the Galas by-election. However, he will only decide on whether he will stand for the state seat after meeting Prime Minister Najib Razak next week.

The 73-year old Umno veteran, who is well respected for his independent views, is expected to urge Najib to pay Kelantan its long-overdue oil royalties and to be more receptive to giving state governments greater autonomy.

“We have nothing to announce. I may meet the PM (prime minister) on Monday. After that, we will have a meeting and, hopefully, after the meeting we will hold a press conference," Malaysian Insider reported Razaleigh as telling reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after flying in from London.

However, few pundits expect that he will be able to make much headway with Najib, the Umno president who has been centralizing and expanding the federal government in a bid to hold onto political power.

"Tengu Razaleigh has a right to decide what he feels is best in the interest of his supporters and constituents. But we are confident he will try his best to be true to the Kelantan people by fighting for their oil rights," PAS treasurer-general Hatta Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.

PAS to go all out

The Galas state seat is part of Razaleigh's Gua Musang parliamentary constituency, which itself is one of the rare Umno strongholds in PAS-dominated Kelantan.

Razaleigh has been the Gua Musang MP since 1969 and Umno leaders have been urging him to take on the Galas seat, which was left vacant after PAS assemblyman Chek Hashim Sulaima died from colon cancer last month. The late Chek Hashim had won the seat with a wafer-thin margin of 646 votes, garnering 4,399 votes against Umno's 3,753.

“Let’s see what happens on November 4,” said Razaleigh, when asked to rate Umno's chances.

PAS has admitted having a 48 percent chance compared to Umno's 52 percent in winning Galas. But that does not mean the party will be taking the contest lightly.

Already, PAS president Hadi Awang has ordered all spare men from both PAS and Pakatan Rakyat onto the battle-field to help the Islamist party defend the seat. Hadi has also said the choice of candidate would be all-important and PAS was likely to go for a local man, even an Orang Asli if such a candidate emerged.

Depending on Ku Li

According to the last electoral roll, there are 10,330 voters in the constituency, with 65.4% Malays, 22.3% Chinese, 10.5% Orang Asli and 1.8% India

Hadi - PAS will give a good fight

Pundits say the Chinese and Orang Asli voters may ultimately decide the winner. In the past election, the Chinese had mostly voted for PAS, while the Orang Asli voted Umno.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has said Umno would only announce its candidate on October 24. Nomination day falls on October 26 and balloting November 4.

"The announcement on the BN candidate will be made in Galas or Gua Musang. We will leave a major part of the preparation for the by-election to the Gua Musang leader as Ku Li (as Razaleigh is also known) is an experienced and influential figure in the area," Muhyiddin told reporters covering his Sydney working trip.