SOURCES close to veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah want to make one thing clear with regards to a series of meetings between the Kelantan prince and several BN members of parliament recently.
And that is "it was the MPs that came to see Ku Li (as Tengku Razaleigh is fondly known) and not Ku Li who called for the meetings".
Regardless, said a political source, the meetings have revived talk of a hung parliament taking shape.
The possibility of a hung parliament surfaced long before GE 13 as many in the political fraternity had then forecast the polls to be very keenly contested and as such, getting a clear cut winner would be extremely difficult.
And according to the source, the name of the Kelantan prince cropped up. "Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was mentioned as a key player in a hung parliament," said the source.
But close and hotly contested that it was, GE13 somehow produced an "outright winner". The hung parliament did not happen.
"Parliament is obviously in BN control so Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah should have slid to oblivion," said the political source. "But", he went on to say "the continued attacks on the election process and dissatisfaction among some BN MPs have opened up a new front and suddenly the hung parliament may become a reality, albeit belated."
As we now know, the "disgruntled" BN MPs came to see Tengku Razaleigh with the "aim of making him PM". How? Or what should Ku Li himself do to be PM of Malaysia?
Tengku Razaleigh has been silent on the meetings thus far. His aides didn't respond to queries made by yours truly. Yet to political analysts and observers, there are several "options" for him to consider.
One is to go the Umno way. That is to contest the presidency now that being nominated as candidate is "much easier" following Umno's election reforms already put in place by the leadership. Win the Umno presidency, and he will "win" the premiership. To put it simply.
Whilst it's true some (or perhaps many) of the disgruntled MPs might not be able to vote by virtue of not being Umno members, the fact Tengku Razaleigh has got them on his side is weighty enough to garner votes.
Chances of Datuk Seri Najib Razak being challenged for the top post cannot be dismissed and this even Najib has admitted. The voting system this time would be different from previous Umno polls.
According to a source, the new voting system would be something like this. Umno branches will hold their AGM first where they will pick three representatives to be delegates at the division AGM. The number of branches in a division varies. Some divisions have 300 braches while others can have up to 800.
The division AGM will, apart from electing its own office bearers, propose names for the party supreme council positions, including the presidency and deputy presidency.
The delegates at the division will then vote and the winner or winners will be nominated by the division. The overall winner would be the one with the most number of nominations obtained from Umno's 191 divisions nationwide.
This time delegates to the annual Umno general assembly (some 2,000 of them) will not be voting at the assembly as they had voted earlier at their respective divisions. This is what Umno meant when it said this time the voting involves at least 140,000 members. However this "new system" as revealed by the political source cannot be verified by officials at Umno headquarters as of now.
Nonetheless, like many election systems, this one will "favour" the incumbents. Which is to say incumbents have the advantage. And a seasoned politician like Tengku Razaleigh knows this all too well.
Anyway, many feel Tengku Razaleigh can or will "incur the wrath" of Umno, at least a good number of party faithful, should he mount a challenge against Najib.
Meanwhile, there are political observers who question if Ku Li still has enough support, if at all, among present day Umno members.
"I don't think Ku Li have any more support in Umno. Sadly he has missed the boat. Too little too late. When people wanted him 'dia jual mahal'," said one such observer, obviously referring to past "experiences" without giving details.
But IDEAS chief executive officer Wan Saiful Jan sees it this way: "I think Ku Li needs to assess his chances and decide whether or not to challenge for the PM post. He doesn't have to be Umno president to be PM.
"All he needs is sufficient support in parliament. If there is enough requests and if he does command majority support, I think it would be wrong for him to ignore the wishes of the MPs."
Which brings us to option two, i.e. via the Pakatan way. Meaning crossover to PR with the disgruntled BN MPs and if the numbers being floated (24 of them but this is disputed by at least one observer I spoke to) are true, then Pakatan would have 113 seats. Enough to topple BN and take over the federal administration.
"Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah will not play the bridesmaid role. Either he leads or none. So it's Anwar's call now," said a political source. Anwar is of course, none other than Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the Pakatan Rakyat's choice for PM in the event the coalition comes into power.
Will Pakatan accept Ku Li as PM? If so where will that put Anwar? But back in 2008, it is believed that Anwar had agreed to be deputy prime minister and make way for Tengku Razaleigh to be PM for a term. That was when Tengku Razaleigh was said to be switching camp, bringing with him a good number of BN MPs then. However as we now know, that didn't happen. Many reasons were given – all academic now.
At present many are asking if the crossover will happen this time – with Anwar as DPM and Tengku Razaleigh as PM for a term formula being put to use.
Said an analyst: "This will involve lots of bargaining, discussion, negotiation, horse trading. Very difficult to see it working out. But to be honest, I think the so-called disgruntled BN MPs are just rattling the cage to get Najib to listen and act upon their grouses." Whatever that might be.
In politics, everything and anything can happen, so we are told. And we are also told never to underestimate or write off politicians under whatever circumstances. All politicians – no matter who they are.
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