The journey in life is never a straight line (PART 15)

It was agreed that Anwar would meet up with Bakar Daud and Rashid Ngah and that I would arrange to bring them down to Kuala Lumpur for that meeting. I would also speak to Awang Jabar (who was very critical of Anwar) and get him to ‘turn’. As for Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar, they would send Hamzah Zainuddin (the present Deputy Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities) to personally handle them.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Once Tok Guru Abdul Hadi Awang became a ‘permanent fixture’ of Masjid Mujahidin in Damansara Utama, the mosque began to expand rapidly. The old wooden structure was no longer big enough to accommodate the much-enlarged congregation. An expansion programme was now in order.

But the land that the mosque sat on did not belong to the mosque. It belonged to the Fire Department and was merely ‘on loan’ to the mosque. And one of the terms of the ‘loan’, other than they would have to return the land to the Fire Department if they asked for it, was that the structure built on the land must be ‘temporary’, which means wooden.

So they first had to apply for that land. Only then could they submit the architect’s plans to build a permanent or concrete structure. And, quite surprisingly, the government approved the application and gave the Fire Department an alternative piece of land in Taman Tun Dr Ismail to build their new fire station.

Other than approve the land, the government even offered to give the mosque some funds. The mosque committee, however, rejected the government offer. They wanted funding to be totally from the public. They did not want one Sen to be from the government. Even if they did take any government money the funds would only be used to build the detached toilets.

Umno was not too happy with the whole thing, though. And during the Umno meeting that was chaired by Dr Ibrahim Saad, Anwar Ibrahim’s Political Secretary, they urged the Selangor Religious Department to demolish the wooden mosque and deny them permission to build a new concrete mosque.

The Selangor Religious Department summoned the mosque committee for a meeting, as they had been instructed to do, but the officer just winked and told them to proceed with the construction of the new mosque. The Selangor Religious Department was on the side of the mosque -- or rather they were pro-Ustaz Hadi Awang people.

One day, in the mid-1980s, and a couple of years after PAS (meaning Hadi Awang) had been ‘exported’ to Kuala Lumpur, Anwar Ibrahim, then the Education Minister, visited Kuala Terengganu. I was jogging along the road in front of the Sultan’s Palace when this very official looking car horned and someone inside waved at me. I did not know then that it was Anwar Ibrahim.

The following day the Director of the Terengganu branch of the National Archives (Arkib Negara), Zainol Abdul Rahman, an ABIM activist, dropped into my office. It seems he was also in the car the day before when Anwar told his driver to horn me. Zainol said that Anwar told him to get in touch with me to get my help to campaign in Terengganu.

But why should I want to help Umno campaign in Terengganu? My alliance was with PAS, not Umno. No, not campaign for Umno. Campaign for Anwar. But why does Anwar not join PAS? Then we can campaign for him. Well, because if Anwar joins PAS he can never become Prime Minister. To become Prime Minister he needs to be in Umno and to rise up the ranks within Umno.

I went down to meet Anwar in his office in Kuala Lumpur. “What the hell are you doing in Terengganu?” Anwar asked me. “I cannot penetrate even a single bahagian (division) in Terengganu. Why aren’t you people doing your work? Help me penetrate Terengganu.”

“Terengganu has only eight bahagian,” I told Anwar. “How many do you want to penetrate?”

“Even if you can give me just one I am happy.”

“I will give you four,” I replied. “Kuala Terengganu, Marang, Dungun and Hulu Terengganu. Is that enough? Four out of eight, that’s half of Terengganu.”

Anwar smile. Maybe he thought I was being sarcastic.

“But there will be a price to pay. Are you prepared to pay that price?”

“Speak to Pak Wan,” Anwar replied.

Pak Wan, or Datuk Dr Wan Ismail, is Anwar’s father-in-law, Dr Wan Azizah’s father.

I met up with Pak Wan and briefed him on my plans. We need to seek out Menteri Besar Wan Mokhtar Ahmad’s enemies and personalities who are ketua bahagian (division heads) or warlords in their own right. Three such people would be Bakar Daud of Kuala Terengganu, Awang Jabar of Dungun and Rashid Ngah of Hulu Terengganu.

Then we need to seek out ambitious youth leaders who are in a hurry to go up the ladder. Two such people would be Zubir Embong of Kuala Terengganu and Rahman Bakar of Marang.

The youth leaders must not, however, ‘disturb’ the old guards or warlords. Hence the old guards would contest state seats while the young chicos would contest parliament seats. And they must be promised ‘positions’ if they throw their lot behind Anwar.

Pak Wan brought me to meet Syed Ibrahim Syed Mohamed (READ ABOUT HIS MYSTERIOUS DEATH HERE) and Ahmad Sebi Bakar, the CEO of TV3 (READ MORE HERE).

It was agreed that Anwar would meet up with Bakar Daud and Rashid Ngah and that I would arrange to bring them down to Kuala Lumpur for that meeting. I would also speak to Awang Jabar (who was very critical of Anwar) and get him to ‘turn’. As for Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar, they would send Hamzah Zainuddin (the present Deputy Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities) to personally handle them.

It was also agreed that Hamzah and I would fly to Terengganu with RM250,000 in cash to hand to our ‘kuda’ (horses). Hamzah would come out with half that amount, RM125,000, and I would have to fork out the other half. Hamzah, my wife Marina, and I then flew to Kuala Terengganu with two bags of cash. We met up with our ‘kuda’ and handed them the money.

It was further agreed that Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar would be given parliamentary seats to contest. Anwar would make sure of this. Zubir would contest the Kuala Terengganu seat while Rahman the Marang seat. I was not too happy with this, though, because that would mean we would have to defeat my Tok Guru, Hadi Awang, if we wanted Rahman Bakar to win.

But Anwar was adamant. “Make sure Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar win,” Anwar instructed. “Do whatever needs to be done.” It was common knowledge that Hadi Awang and Anwar Ibrahim hated each other. Hence to Anwar this was also personal.

I sat down with Pak Wan and Ahmad Sebi to sort out our ‘Dirty Tricks Department’. It is not going to be easy for Zubir and Rahman to win the Kuala Terengganu and Marang seats respectively unless we ‘played dirty’. And we would have to be real dirty to defeat Hadi Awang, the ‘Giant of Marang’.

They told me the game plan and I did not like it. As much as Anwar wanted Zubir and Rahman to win, Hadi Awang was my Tok Guru. They could not expect me to sabotage my own Tok Guru. I begged to be exempted from all involvement in their game plan. I had reached the limit as to what I would do for Anwar and betraying my own Tok Guru was beyond the limit I was prepared to go -- especially the dirty tricks they were going to employ.

I met up with Mustafa Ali to inform him about what was going on. I also told him what the game plan was and how they were going to do a dirty on PAS. I asked him what he would like me to do about it.

Mustafa Ali told me to ‘stay in Anwar’s camp’. “Infiltrate their group and report back to me daily what they are up to,” Mustafa Ali said. “You can serve us better as our spy in Anwar’s camp.” I did just that. I also handed PAS a bag of cash to ‘redeem my sins’. That was the best I could do under the circumstances although the amount was not that large.

Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar both won the 1986 general election. And that earned Rahman Bakar the title of ‘Giant Killer’ -- he had defeated Hadi Awang.

Anwar appointed Zubir Embong the Chairman of Bank Simpanan Nasional, a Director of Pewaja Steel Sdn Bhd and a Director of TNB Berhad. Rahman Bakar was appointed the Chairman of Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan Malaysia (LKIM) from 1987-1990 and the Deputy Chairman of Mara from 1990-1995.

I felt real bad about my role in defeating Hadi Awang in 1986. In the 1990 general election, I refused to help them. Once was enough. Anwar bumped into me in Kampong Kerinchi in Lembah Pantai during the 1990 general election campaign and scolded me.

“What are you doing here?” he asked me. “You are supposed to be in Terengganu helping Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar.” My wife, Marina, was pissed big time -- mainly because Anwar scolded me in public in front of so many people.

“That bastard is never going to become the Prime Minister,” Marina said. “You just watch. Record that in your diary. He is going to fall. Record that in your diary.”

In the 1990 general election, both Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar were defeated. And Anwar blamed me for it. The report that was sent to Anwar was that I had sabotaged Zubir and Rahman out of spite. In the meeting in Anwar’s house, they whacked me. I, of course, had my spy there so I received a full report as to who said what about me.

Thus ended my relationship with Anwar, at least for the next eight years until 1998 when he was produced in court with that now very famous black eye.

Oh, I later caught up with one of those who were in that meeting in Anwar’s house and who had whacked me and had said all sorts of nasty things about me. This incident was in the Kuala Terengganu airport, which was crowded with people.

I grabbed the chap by the throat and dragged him outside the airport. All those Datuks, which included the State Secretary, State Financial Officer, etc., were stunned and just watched. Even the airport security just stood there to watch.

“I was told you said all sorts of nasty things about me in that meeting in Anwar’s house,” I told him. He practically went down on his knees to beg me not to beat him up. I had in an earlier incident chased three Umno Youth chaps so by then my reputation as someone who will not hesitate to whack the daylights out of you if you cross me was already well-known.

Marina gave me a dirty look so I released the chap. I then warned him that the next time he badmouths me in any meeting in Anwar’s house ‘tiada maaf bagi mu’. Later on, during an Umno Youth Terengganu meeting chaired by Wan Mokhtar, Umno Youth was told that Raja Petra must be kicked out of Terengganu.

Around three years later, I did just that -- I left Terengganu for good. And imagine my satisfaction 15 years later in 2009 when I returned to Kuala Terengganu to campaign for PAS during the by-election and we managed to wrest that seat from Umno. A month after that, I left Malaysia to ‘migrate’ to Manchester.