About it being too early

The reason Anwar gave for challenging Suhaimi, although he was still too new in Umno, was that Umno Youth, under Suhaimi, had lost its bite. In fact, it had even lost its bark. No longer was Umno Youth the party within a party or the pressure group that it once was.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I did not agree for Zaid Ibrahim to contest the deputy presidency of PKR. And the reason I did not agree was because I felt he should not lower himself by getting involved in gutter politics. And that is what would have happened if he had contested -- which has now been proven correct.

Many, however, do not agree that Zaid throw down the gauntlet because he is too new in the party, has not proven himself yet, has not proven his loyalty to the cause, could be a Trojan Horse, is a spoiler, may cause a split in the party, and whatnot.

I do not share those reasons although I do agree that he should not contest.

In 1968, Anwar Ibrahim was a student activist, a leader of the ‘Third Force’, if you wish. In 1971, ABIM was formed, which soon enough emerged as a very powerful Third Force in Malaysia. Anwar, on the platform of ABIM, toured the country to speak in PAS organised ceramahs (political rallies) even though he was not a PAS member as such.

It was an accepted fact that one day Anwar would take over the presidency of PAS -- which was also the wish of the late President of PAS, Fadzil Noor (he personally told me this when we met in Mekah, Saudi Arabia, in 1982).

But that same year, in 1982, Anwar shocked us all by joining Umno (to prevent him from joining PAS, as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself admitted). We were devastated, as was Fadzil Noor -- who ‘confided’ in me by merely shaking his head and was utterly speechless when we discussed the matter.

This, however, is not the point of my article today. What I want to talk about is that in 1982 Anwar joined Umno and in that same year he challenged Suhaimi Kamaruddin for the position of Umno Youth Leader.

From the opposition, into Umno, and into the position of Umno Youth Leader, all in that same year.

Now, you must remember, the position of Umno Youth Leader was, at that time, the second most powerful position in Umno, even more powerful than the position of the deputy presidency of the party. In those days Umno Youth was a party within a party. It was a pressure group to the main Umno. And Umno feared its Youth Movement more than it feared the opposition.

The reason Anwar gave for challenging Suhaimi, although he was still too new in Umno, was that Umno Youth, under Suhaimi, had lost its bite. In fact, it had even lost its bark. No longer was Umno Youth the party within a party or the pressure group that it once was. So Suhaimi had to go and Anwar was going to take over the Youth leadership so that Umno Youth could be restored to what it once was.

Many people grumbled that Anwar was still too new in the party. He should be a member of Umno for at least five years before he takes on any party position or contest the general election (which he did in 1982 and was made a Cabinet minister soon after he won the Permatang Pauh seat in that general election).

Anwar’s father declared that Anwar was an Umno member for more than five years. He said he had secretly signed Anwar up as an Umno member without Anwar’s knowledge during the time Anwar was campaigning for PAS. Some say this was not true and that Anwar’s membership had been backdated to meet the five-year membership rule and therefore make him eligible to contest.

Nevertheless, officially, Anwar was eligible to contest and he did. But not many in Umno Youth would support him because of his opposition background and because he was too new in the party, had not proven himself yet, had not proven his loyalty to the cause, could be a Trojan Horse, was a spoiler, may cause a split in the party, and whatnot (exactly what they say about Zaid today).

So Anwar had to look outside the party for support. I was approached by Zainol Abdul Rahman, the Director of Arkib Negara Terengganu (and an Abim member as well as ex-Yayasan Anda lecturer), to help in Anwar’s campaign.

But we were all ‘outsiders’ (as Anwar said last week). We were not Umno members. In fact, we were staunch PAS supporters (although not card carrying members). Nevertheless, we campaigned for Anwar and he eventually won the Umno Youth leadership. And in the next round we did the same when Suhaimi challenged Anwar. And in the third round when Syed Hamid Albar tried to wrest the Umno Youth leadership from Anwar we again campaigned for him.

We campaigned for Anwar three times in a row, and each time he won, although most of us were non-Umno members and ‘outsiders’.

The issue that Anwar is too new in the party, has not proven himself yet, has not proven his loyalty to the cause, could be a Trojan Horse, is a spoiler, may cause a split in the party, and whatnot, were not issues then. The issue of whether Anwar is really a five-year member of Umno or his membership had been backdated was not even raised.

Suhaimi was not effective and therefore he should be replaced with someone more aggressive was the only thing that mattered.

So I do not buy all those reasons why Zaid should not contest the second most important post in PKR -- although I do agree that he should not contest, but for another reason. If these are valid reasons then Anwar too should not have contested the second most important position in Umno -- the Umno Youth leadership.

(Of course, today, the Umno Youth leadership is not what it used to be like back in the 1970s and 1980s when the ‘Lion of Umno’, Syed Jaafar Albar, and Harun Idris of May 13 ‘fame’ held that post)

No, we can’t ‘fix the rules’ as and when it suits us and change them again when they no longer suit us. And let me remind Anwar that it was the ‘outsiders’ like us who helped his meteoric rise in Umno. If left to the Umno members they would have kicked him out because Anwar was considered too new in the party, had not proven himself yet, had not proven his loyalty to the cause, could be a Trojan Horse, was a spoiler, may cause a split in the party, and whatnot.

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From 1968 to 1971, as a student, Anwar was the president of a Muslim students organisation, Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia (PKPIM). Around the same time, he was also the president of Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya (PBMUM). He was one of the protem committee of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) or Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, which was founded in 1971. He was also elected President of the Malaysian Youth Council or Majlis Belia Malaysia (MBM). In 1974, Anwar was arrested during student protests against rural poverty and hunger. This came as a report surfaced stating that a family died from starvation in a village in Baling, in the state of Kedah, despite the fact that it never happened. He was imprisoned under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, and spent 20 months in the Kamunting Detention Centre.

In 1982, Anwar, who was the founding leader and second president of a youth Islamic organisation called Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), shocked his liberal supporters by joining the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), led by Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had become prime minister in 1981. He moved up the political ranks quickly: his first ministerial office was that of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1983; after that, he headed the agriculture ministry in 1984 before becoming Minister of Education in 1986. By then, speculation was rife about Anwar's ascent to the Deputy Prime Minister's position as it was a commonly-occurring phenomenon in Malaysia for the Education Minister to assume the position of Deputy PM in the near future.

In 1991 Anwar was appointed Minister of Finance. In 1993, he became Mahathir's Deputy Prime Minister after winning the Deputy Presidency of UMNO against Ghafar Baba. There is report on Anwar using large cash payments to win support. Anwar is alleged to have resorted to money politics to secure his position as deputy president of UMNO. Anwar's followers were witnessed by even foreign journalists handing out packets of money to acquire support of UMNO division leaders. These followers are said to be working under Anwar's instructions. Anwar was being groomed to succeed Mahathir as prime minister, and frequently alluded in public to his "son-father" relationship with Mahathir; in early 1997, Mahathir appointed Anwar to be acting Prime Minister while he took a two-month holiday. -- Wikipedia