The journey in life is never a straight line (PART 17)

Kamaruddin and I drove to Anwar’s house to inform him of the deal that Azmi had offered us. We were going to get to see the marked ballot papers so it can’t go wrong. This was a sure thing. Anwar was furious. “I promised Mahathir that I would support him!” Anwar screamed at us. Kamaruddin and I looked at each other. Kamaruddin tried to explain that Dr Mahathir is probably going to lose anyway. So why not we make a deal and ensure that Anwar wins?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There is a difference between being political and being a partisan. You need to be political to be a partisan, but you do not need to be a partisan to be political. The example I always use is: you need to be a woman to be a lady but that does not mean all women are ladies -- if you know what I mean. And if you don’t then that is your problem, not mine.

I got exposed to politics soon after the launch of the New Economic Policy (NEP) when I started my business. I went into business not because of the NEP. In fact, we did not even understand or care about the NEP yet at that time. It was purely coincidental that I launched my business a couple of years after the launch of the NEP.

I mean I was already in my mid-20s and with a wife and daughter to support -- so I needed to make something of my life. And earning a salary of RM250 a month is not quite a roaring career. It was, therefore, out of necessity that I went into business. If not I would have starved to death. I just wanted, as Malaysians would say, to cari makan.

It was then that I discovered that business and politics sometimes go hand-in-hand. And sometimes the mafia will eat you up if you try to remain a solo player. So I joined the Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Dewan Perniagaan) to seek ‘protection’. It was sort of like in the US. You join the union so that you do not get beaten up on the way home from work.

And the Dewan Perniagaan was, in a way, an extension of Umno. Most of the state chiefs and central committee members were Umno ‘strongmen’ or had strong links (big cables) with the very top in government. Hence the Dewan Perniagaan was a good platform to sort out whatever problems you may face. And all businessmen in Malaysia know that business and problems come as a package -- unless you have some sort of protection.

I was not really interested in politics. I did not even care much who won the election and formed the government. When you are 24-25 and have a ‘new’ family to worry about and no money in your pocket, you just want to focus on putting food on the table and a roof over your family’s head. My main concern was to try to figure out how to hide my car so that the finance company can’t get its hands on it and take it away from me.

Yes, that’s how bad my finances were. So who the hell cares who becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia? Whoever becomes the Prime Minister my car is still going to get repossessed.

That was my priority back in 1974-1975.

Then, a couple of years later, I ‘discovered’ Islam, as I have written about so many times. Then, another couple of years later, the Islamic Revolution of Iran exploded and I transformed into a ‘fundamentalist’ (whatever that means but is a favourite word of the western media). And Anwar Ibrahim toured Terengganu as the ABIM President to talk in PAS organised ceramah. And that got me closer to PAS.

But I never became a PAS member. I was also not an Umno member either. For religious reasons I ‘moved’ with PAS but for business reasons I maintained links with Umno, mostly those in the Dewan Perniagaan. And we did not see this as being hypocritical or unprincipled because that is what you need to do in the business world. You kept your religious and business interests separate. They both did not really mix so you juggled with both and played a delicate balancing act.

Hence, 35-40 years ago, I already learned how to stay political but remain non-partisan. You worked with personalities, not with the party. Hence, also, we did not see anything wrong with supporting and campaigning for Anwar even though we were not Umno members but were PAS sympathisers -- but not really PAS members either.

That was the political culture we picked up 35-40 years ago. And until today that is still how we look at things. We could support certain things that Umno does and oppose certain things. We could also support certain things that the opposition does and oppose certain things. We can also support certain personalities in the party but yet not support the party.

And this is probably what most people do not understand, especially political novices or newcomers who became politically active only in the last five years or so since 2007-2008. To these political novices or newcomers, it is all or nothing. If you support certain things then you must support everything and you must give undying loyalty to the party.

We never operated under those conditions back in the 1970s and we still do not until today. We were brought up in a totally different political-non-partisan culture where we support causes more than personalities and sometimes support personalities without supporting his or her party.

Hence, when Anwar decided to join Umno in 1982 that was a great disappointment but not the end of the world for us. Anwar can move into Umno and we can oppose him for that. But that did not make him our enemy. We still supported him as far as his struggle for Islam was concerned. And when Anwar wanted to take on Suhaimi Kamaruddin for the Umno Youth Leadership, we could support him and campaign for him although we were not Umno members and actually did not support Umno.

Today, this would probably sound very strange. In fact, it may even sound very suspicious. But we are talking about an era of more than 30 years ago when the value system then is not the value system of today.

For example, when Umno came to see us to ‘sell’ tables for fund raising dinners at RM10,000 per table, we would buy a table or two and attend the dinner together with our family and friends who were not Umno members or supporters.

I suppose this was just like the Chinese back during the Communist insurgency in the time of The Emergency. For business reasons the Chinese would support the government but for ideological reasons or out of fear of retribution they also supported the Communist Terrorists. And the British knew this. That was why the British did not punish the Chinese but instead isolated them in ‘new villages’ to sever the links between the Chinese and the CTs.

So, when Anwar decided to take on Suhaimi, we supported him. Then, when Suhaimi gave Anwar a return match, we again supported Anwar. In the third round, Syed Hamid Albar took on Anwar and, again, we supported Anwar.

Anwar won all three rounds.

Then came the fourth round, the tussle between Team A and Team B that I wrote about in the previous episode.

The day before the now famous Team A versus Team B contest, Azmi, brother to the infamous Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa, contacted me and requested a meeting. I got in touch with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s political Secretary, Noor Azam, and informed him about the clandestine meeting. The meeting was supposed to be after dinner at the Merlin Hotel (now called Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur).

I went to meet Azmi together with Kamaruddin Jaafar, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba’s Political Secretary (an ABIM activist and Anwar ‘strongman’). Azmi then offered us a deal. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s people will vote for Anwar for Vice President if Anwar’s people will vote for Tengku Razaleigh and Musa Hitam for President and Deputy President respectively.

They will show us the ballot papers marked against Anwar’s name for Vice President if we show them our ballot papers marked Tengku Razaleigh and Musa Hitam. Dr Mahathir and Ghafar would be history by that same time the following day.

I thought that was a good deal. We did not really care who became the President and Deputy President of Umno. We just wanted Anwar to go up to become the Vice President, which he can then later use as a springboard to take over the Deputy Presidency of Umno and then become the Prime Minister-in-waiting.

Hence it did not matter who became number one and number two. We were going to get rid of them in time anyway. It is number three that concerned us. And we wanted Anwar as the number three.

Kamaruddin and I drove to Anwar’s house to inform him of the deal that Azmi had offered us. We were going to get to see the marked ballot papers so it can’t go wrong. This was a sure thing.

Anwar was furious. “I promised Mahathir that I would support him!” Anwar screamed at us. Kamaruddin and I looked at each other. Kamaruddin tried to explain that Dr Mahathir is probably going to lose anyway. So why not we make a deal and ensure that Anwar wins?

“No way!” Anwar said. “If I win but Mahathir loses I will resign. I will not stay on if Ku Li and Musa win. So if you want me to stay on then you must make sure that Mahathir wins. If not, even if I win, I will resign.”

Anwar had put us in a dilemma. The only way to ‘help’ Anwar would be to ensure that Dr Mahathir wins and Tengku Razaleigh loses. We were terribly unhappy about it but had no choice in the matter. As we were leaving Anwar’s house he reminded us to make sure that Dr Mahathir wins if we do not want him (Anwar) to resign. "Don't make any deals behind my back," Anwar warned us.

It was around midnight when we returned to the Merlin Hotel and met up with Pak Wan (Datuk Dr Wan Ismail, Anwar Ibrahim’s father-in-law), Ahmad Sebi (of TV3), Noor Azam, Syed Ibrahim Syed Mohamed and Kip Bahadum (the Umno Secretary). Our meeting was about how to ensure that Team A wins the party election the following day. And that was when we mooted the idea of the tricks that we would need to pull off, which I wrote about in the previous episode.

I am still confident that if we had done a deal then Tengku Razaleigh would have taken over as Prime Minister back in 1987. Because of Anwar, Dr Mahathir stayed 22 years as Prime Minister rather than only six years.

Then, ten years later, Anwar made his move on Dr Mahathir. Dr Mahathir was an animal that Anwar created. But when Anwar tried to put that animal to sleep that same animal turned around and bit Anwar in the butt.

If that is not poetic justice then I don’t know what is.

When Tengku Razaleigh closed down his Semangat 46 in October 1986 and rejoined Umno soon after that, he knew that Dr Mahathir and Anwar were about to have a great fall out. Dr Mahathir was aware that Anwar was about to make his move. And, a few months later, Anwar made his move. On 1st September 1998, Dr Mahathir made his counter-move and checkmated Anwar.

And while all this was going on in 1996-1998, I brought out my popcorn and sat back to enjoy the drama. And when Dr Mahathir moved in to finish off Anwar for good, I applauded. It is not that I supported Dr Mahathir as much as I admire the great move that he made.

Unknown to most Malaysians, back in August 1998, Anwar had Dr Mahathir cornered. Anwar’s gun was at Dr Mahathir’s head. All Anwar needed to do was to pull the trigger and Dr Mahathir was dead meat. However, before Anwar could pull the trigger, Dr Mahathir pulled his gun out instead and shot Anwar dead.

The hunted turned hunter in just a flicker of an eyelid. Now that is what I call a political guru. And if you really want to be a politician you need to learn from the guru. Anwar, unfortunately, did not. And because of that he did not become Prime Minister.

Well, as I said, I may be political but that does not mean I am a partisan. And not being a partisan allows me to admire politicians from both sides of the political divide.

And don’t you dare tell me what I can and cannot do and who I can and cannot admire. I do what I want to do, not what you want me to do. The last time I listened to what others want me to do we ended up with a Prime Minister who ruled for 22 years instead of just six years.

TO BE CONTINUED