The journey in life is never a straight line (PART 16)

There was a gap of about eight months between the August 1986 general election and the April 1987 Umno party election. And we were all told to take leave from our businesses to focus full-time on the Umno party election. I left the running of the business to my wife, Marina, and hit the road to prepare the groundwork for the mother of all battles looming over the horizon -- the contest between Team A and Team B.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

With the 1986 general election out of the way, it was now time to decide who the boss was. And this was what the real objective was all about, the Umno party elections. The 1986 general election was not the prize. That was merely the foundation stone to the real prize, the leadership of Umno.

And this was where the dirty tricks and the money politics would come in handy and would be extremely crucial. This was where the cheques would be cashed. The Umno party election was by far more brutal and more intensively fought than the general election. By comparison, the 1986 general election was almost like a walk in the park. And the ‘debts’ from the 1986 general election would now have to be paid in full in 1987.

There was a gap of about eight months between the August 1986 general election and the April 1987 Umno party election. And we were all told to take leave from our businesses to focus full-time on the Umno party election. I left the running of the business to my wife, Marina, and hit the road to prepare the groundwork for the mother of all battles looming over the horizon -- the contest between Team A and Team B.

And did it prove to be the mother of all battles! Never before had so much money been spent on a party election. Never before had threats as well as blackmail been used to the extreme to make people do the bidding of those who aspired for power. Never before had Umno been brought to the brink of destruction and which it never really recovered from ever since.

The 1987 party contest changed Umno for good and introduced a new culture into Umno that transferred the party from the hands of the nationalists into the hands of the capitalists.

Basically, Umno was transformed from a party of intellectuals and educators into a party of business taukays. Umno became what MCA always was -- a money party. Umno sent shivers down MCA’s spine because Umno became more money-driven than even MCA itself.

The new Umno culture became: money talks, bullshit walks. And it has remained that way ever since.

Umno would never be brought back to what it was when it was first formed in 1946. Umno became ‘Umno baru’ in 1987 even before Umno Baru was legally and officially registered in 1988. And this is what many did not grasp at that time. When we, those from the business community, were ‘press-ganged’ into joining the campaign, we created more damage than good.

Basically, we did not have any sentimental attachments to Umno. We did not care what happened to Umno. In fact, we did not have any love for Umno because most of us loved PAS more (at least those of us in the ABIM ‘gang’). We just wanted to win even if in the process that saw the destruction of Umno.

And, boy, did we win! And, boy, did Umno get destroyed!

I suppose PAS has to thank us for that. We went in to Umno and we just bombed the whole party to pieces. No doubt our team won. But the price they paid for that is that Umno lost.

Team A was headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba as his Deputy and Anwar Ibrahim as his Youth Leader. Team B was headed by Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah with Tun Musa Hitam as his Deputy and Najib Tun Razak as his aspire-to-be Youth Leader.

And the rest of Umno was split almost 50:50.

Our job was to ensure that Najib changed sides. And to do that we had to get Najib’s boys in Umno Youth into Anwar’s pocket.

Anwar offered Najib a deal. Anwar would vacate the Umno Youth Leader’s post and hand it to Najib uncontested. Anwar would then contest the Umno Vice Presidency. But Najib would have to openly throw his lot behind Team A.

In the beginning, Najib refused. However, Najib is not much of a fighter so it was not that difficult to ‘persuade’ him to change sides. Just threaten Najib that if he did not join Team A then he would have to fight for the Umno Youth Leader’s post. It would not be handed to him on a silver platter. That was enough to make Najib change sides.

Then we had to get the Youth Leaders from the various states to join Team A. Sabah had no Umno divisions yet at that time so the two biggest states were Perak and Johor. Hence Ramli Ngah Talib (an ‘Old Boy’ of the Malay College Kuala Kangsar) and Muhyiddin Yassin, the Menteris Besar of Perak and Johor respectively, would need to be roped in.

Anuar Musa from Kelantan, Hanafiah Man from Kedah, Hamzah Zainuddin from Perak, Bakar Dewa from Johor, Zubir Embong and Rahman Bakar from Terengganu, etc., were summoned for a meeting. In that meeting they were asked to state their stand. Do they support Team A or Team B?

At first most of them were wishy-washy. They did not dare commit themselves. The sentiments they expressed was that it was going to be a tie and that Dr Mahathir, because of the very narrow win of a couple of votes, might decide to throw in the towel and hand the party to Tengku Razaleigh. Unless they were sure that Dr Mahathir was going to stay on they would rather not openly declare their stand.

I reported this to Pak Wan (Datuk Dr Wan Ismail, Anwar Ibrahim’s father-in-law) who brought me to meet Dr Mahathir’s Political Secretary, Datuk Noor Azam. Noor Azam was furious. All these people came up because of Dr Mahathir. And now they dare not state their stand as to whether they support Dr Mahathir or Tengku Razaleigh.

I told Noor Azam it would help if Dr Mahathir can declare that even if he wins by just one vote he will still not resign. That would give everyone the confidence to support him. The rumour being spread is that unless Dr Mahathir gets a clear majority he is not going to stay on.

That night, Dr Mahathir made the announcement and the doubters swung over to Team A.

We spoke to Tan Sri Mohammad Tajol Rosli Mohamed Ghazali about forming a ‘cheering squad’. It was agreed that we would infiltrate the Umno general assembly with about 200 to 300 ‘observers’ and they would all be placed in the front row. Then, as Dr Mahathir delivers his speech, these ‘observers’ would stand up and shout ‘Hidup Mahathir!’ The delegates would then join the chorus.

Dr Mahathir was not told of this plan because we wanted it to look genuine. Halfway through his speech, we interrupted him with shouts of ‘Hidup Mahathir!’ Dr Mahathir was caught off guard when almost the whole hall stood up to join the chorus, even those who supported Tengku Razaleigh.

Dr Mahathir stopped his speech and sat down without continuing. He knew that we had clearly won the day. Team B was in panic.

The Umno Permanent Chairman, Tun Sulaiman Ninam Shah, then ruled that the voting would be held immediately. There were loud protests from Team B because after Dr Mahathir’s speech it was supposed to be the tea break. That would have given Team B time for a last minute campaign before the voting.

Sulaiman ruled that the voting will be held immediately and anyone who left the hall would not be allowed back in to the hall to vote. Hence they must vote before leaving the hall. “Vote first and then you can go for tea. The tea is not going to run away,” said Sulaiman.

Team A pulled through with a slim 3% majority.

In the next episode I will talk about how we almost kicked Dr Mahathir out the night before the party election but was prevented by Anwar from doing so.

TO BE CONTINUED