Tengku Razaleigh & The NeverEnding Story

Before I come to the current hot and perhaps wishful topic of Tengku Razaleigh (Ku Li) forming a 3rd Force to seize power and the PM post from Najib Razak, I might explain a wee bit about my choice of the post title, appropriated from a famous German fantasy novel (as well as the films based on it).

The NeverEnding Story is an apt title to describe the political 'odyssey' and specifically the various campaigns of Anwar Ibrahim in his search for his personal Holy Grail, the appointment of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Incidentally, The Odyssey is an epic poem which is attributed to the famous Greek poet, Homer. The Odyssey describes Odysseus' (or better known by his classical-Roman name, Ulysses') 10-year wandering within the Mediterranean theatre in his attempt to return home to his Kingdom of Ithaca on the west cost of Greece after the Trojan War (described in another Homer’s poem The Iliad).

Odysseus suffered the almost never-ending wanderings because he pissed off Poseidon (known as Neptune in Classical-Roman myths), the God of the Seas, for blinding his son, Polyphemus the Cyclops. Poseidon through his control of the seas prevented Odysseus from being able to sail directly to his homeland to reclaim his crown as King of Ithaca.

Odysseus blinding Polyphemus

Homer wrote of Poseidon's hatred for Odysseus: "But victory never comes cheap. Poseidon's anger had indeed been kindled. He roused the winds and tides against Ulysses [Odysseus] and sent word to island ogres and monsters of the deep."

Because of Odysseus wanderings, one filled with hardships, dangers, perilous adventures and a multitude of near failures, any similar long, arduous and dangerous journey has come to be termed or described as an odyssey.

In this, Anwar Ibrahim's similar decade-plus (almost 14 years) long journey to realize his personal political ambition has been an odyssey. Reminding ourselves of Anwar's 'Long March' (the Chinese version of a political odyssey, albeit a physical one as well) is important because of reasons to be made apparent soon.

Hmmm, I just wonder who could be Anwar's Poseidon? wakakaka. And if you're thinking it must be Mahathir, matey you're wrong. It's Anwar's own impatience. Insofar as his PM aspirations and ambitions are concerned, Anwar Ibrahim has been his own worst enemy.

I have posted on more than one occasion about Anwar Ibrahim's near misses at Malaysia's top political position, as follows:

(a) The torment and impatience of Anwar Ibrahim

(b) The Achilles heel of Anwar Ibrahim

and many other posts.

Within those two posts, you will be able to read extracts such as, respectively:

on Monday 21 August 2008 - Not satisfied with the Pakatan achieving a tsunamic victory (alas, there was nothing for him personally, when UMNO continued to snub him), he sought to destabilize a democratically elected government.

In the 6-months long process of snapping at AAB's heels and attempting to crush Najib's wayward balls, he has pushed himself and his Pakatan into a blind alley, where he now cannot extricate himself if he doesn't become PM by 16 September 2008.

What he should have done was to consolidate the Pakatan’s new power, formed a shadow cabinet to train his colleagues on ministerial functions, and developed the 5 Pakatan held States as models of democracy, freedom and free speech, non-corruptibility, good governance with full transparency and public accountability, and race-less equality and opportunity.

And he would have easily become PM in 2012 …

… but alas no ..

T’was again his impatience to reach the top – and he now suffers all sorts of allegation like the alleged sodomy charge, [...]

and

on Monday 14 July 2008 - Anwar's Achilles heel is showing through again, refusing to wait for the next general election – of course there are other factors as well which I will blog on tomorrow. Hence the PKR's almost daily broadcast about pending party defections … perhaps to pressure other UMNO stalwarts if not AAB, but wakakaka, they sneakily (and more wisely) turn towards PAS instead of Anwar.

Expect him to continue and even escalate his campaign of political destabilization, as he becomes more frantic with the approaching September 16 in just 2 months time.

And Malaysiakini has just published 'Opposition had planned demo today' where it reported Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid claiming that, this month alone, his ministry has received information that numerous demonstrations were to be staged by the opposition (he probably meant PKR) with the sole purpose of toppling the government.

... and of course there is the Great 916 Shame and also the post titled The Curse of Marina Lee Abdullah? wakakaka.

Happier times, wakakaka

But from my extracts above, you can gather an idea of the man and his obsession for a prize he believes belonged to him in 1998.

Like Odysseus he wants to claim his crown, to be the political king of Malaysia. But unlike Odysseus (before leaving for a decade long war with Troy), he was not a king reclaiming what was his, but which he nonetheless believes should be and thus was his.

Now, do you understand why he has been so super-geram as he launches his never-ending campaigns - call them Reformasi, (hijacked) Bersih, Black 505 or whatever, they're all tragic reflections on his obsession to be PM.

Tunku Aziz has been a naughty patrician in recent times (ever since he left DAP in merajuk fashion) but recently he made a succinct remark in stating that "Anwar has a talent for mischief", implying Anwar will keep on a campaign of destabilization, ...

... in the same manner as I had posted on Monday 21 August 2008 (see above extract of a 2008 post), to wit, Not satisfied with the Pakatan achieving a tsunamic victory (alas, there was nothing for him personally, when UMNO continued to snub him), he sought to destabilize a democratically elected government.

In the 6-months long process of snapping at AAB's heels and attempting to crush Najib's wayward balls, he has pushed himself and his Pakatan into a blind alley, where he now cannot extricate himself if he doesn’t become PM by 16 September 2008. or be sworn in together with his PKR MPs on 24 June in Parliament.

Now we come to Ku Li. 'twas often said that Ku Li was the best PM we never had. But why didn't Ku Li become PM?

In his published memoirs, Dr Mahathir claimed that Ku Li’s impatience cost him the PM’s post.

But my uncles told me otherwise, that Ku Li's monumental loss was likely due to two other factors.

The first, probably the minor one, had to start off with the telling that Ku Li was then UMNO’s treasurer. Due to his amazing efforts, he was responsible for having a new impressive UMNO building built [don’t know whether it’s the same one today?] It was a proud moment for UMNO, but alas, like Australians, UMNO members didn't like a ‘tall poppy’.

standing out too prominently gets cut down

The term ‘tall poppy’ means a person of real ability and commendable merits but who is resented by others and usually attacked and criticized by them because his achievements has put him significantly above his peers. Thus such a 'tall poppy' has to be chopped down. With the erection of the new UMNO building, did Ku Li unfortunately become a ‘tall poppy’ to some?

Apparently, believing it would benefit his party election prospects, it was said he arranged for the party assembly (prior to the party election) to be held at the new building, perhaps to remind party delegates of his achievements as party treasurer through the high visibility of the impressive new 'monument'.

But some of his mates warned him the more conservative UMNO members might not take kindly to this, and could well vote against him. Hmmm, would that be a reflection of some members' resentment of a man they saw as not sufficiently humble enough to be a good Malay and therefore not fit to lead them, or was it just plain jealousy of a ‘tall poppy’? Who knows?

Hah, now we now come to the second factor, centred around a young bloke by the name of Najib Razak wakakaka. He was about to become the party's acting Youth Chief, as his predecessor Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka vacated that post to stand for election as a party VP.

The story went that Najib was initially in Ku Li’s camp with a voting bloc which would have seen Ku Li nicely into the party president post - recall that Ku Li lost by a mere 43 votes! But alas, it was said that Najib changed side at the last minute, and the rest is UMNO and Malaysian history.

Incidentally, RPK provided another (probably more reliable) angle to the story, explaining why Najib zagged instead of zigged in his notorious zigzag way at the very last minute.

Apparently, accoridng to RPK, Don Corleone Anwar Ibrahim gave Najib an offer he couldn't refuse wakakaka, something along the line that Najib bloody well support Mahathir or face humongous problems in his ascendancy to the Youth Chief’s post.

Now Najib, do you want to be Youth Boss?
So listen, this is what you have to do

wakakaka!

My uncles remembered reading in the newspapers how Najib, because of his initial allegiance to Ku Li until he was ‘persuaded’ by Anwar wakakaka, subsequently went to elaborate attempts to 'honour' Mahathir, with a public show of fealty when the latter came back from an overseas trip.

All the trappings and paraphernalia of Malay feudal honours and pledges of loyalty were unstintingly, ostentatiously and extravagantly displayed, not unlike what Perkasa did for our former PM when he took on the post of patron to the so-called NGO, except of course Najib's efforts were far more stupendous wakakaka. And Mahathir lapped it all up.

No doubt Najib was petrified that his zigzagging ways right up to the last minute of the critical party election would be viewed with disdain by the new No 1.

Aiyah, Mahathir always have a soft spot for then young Najib. I suspect it's the Old Man's hutang budi (debt) to the late Tun Razak who brought him from the cold outside, after he was expelled by Tunku, back into the party .

So, with all these stories by my elders (and RPK), I wonder about Mahathir’s claim that Ku Li lost the post because the latter was impatient.

There was also another story of Melayu-type sabotage, where Ku Li, in innocuously wearing a Sabahan native headdress when he visited Sabah, provided his political foes with the ammo to accuse him of being aligned with Christians, because the native headdress appeared to have a cross (crucifix).

Anyway, after Mahathir’s UMNO Baru won the court case and more importantly all the most-considerable assets of Old UMNO and the power to rule, Ku Li left the party to form Semangat 46, which, alas for us, was a political flop.

Even when he rejoined UMNO or rather joined UMNO Baru, for there was no party like good UMNO for an UMNO man (call him UMNO man or Semangat 46 man or wakakaka PKR man, they are all the same), he was noticeably 'left out' of the power loop though I'm sure he wasn't buggered in other areas such as business, etc. 

You couldn't blame Mahathir for that because Ku Li was not only a formidable opponent but highly and certainly MORE respected, liked and has the ears of the royalty, a most important institution in Malaysia. You could virtually equate him to the most beloved of all Malaysian leaders, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Then Mahathir must have still feared him as a potential, credible and popular rival.

But I suspect Ku Li's memories of this reality (his post Semangat 46 status or lack of) and the fear of being completely cut off by UMNO have been the principal deterrence which prevented him from ever taking a courageous stand to put his candidature as PM openly, whether as an UMNO candidate or as a Pakatan nominated leader.

I'm sure Ku Li still harbours dreams of becoming PM but he has always waited for an open invitation which would guarantee him 101% of the PM's post. He won't take a chance.

Thus, while he has entertained meetings with East Malaysian BN leaders purportedly to form a 3rd Force to effect a change of ruling party, I bet you he would, if push comes to shove, tell you he was merely entertaining some 'old friends', wakakaka.

The current gossip is for 24 BN MPs from East Malaysia plus 10 BN MPs from Peninsular to combine with Pakatan to form a government that is both Najib-free and Anwar-free.

Pakatan currently has 89 which on the surface will be more than enough if Ku Li can swing those 34 BN MPs to his 3rd Force.

But coming back to our home-grown political Odysseus, do you imagine for one microsecond that Anwar Ibrahim will accept Ku Li as the Pakatan PM?

DAP will, PAS is likely to, but PKR? No, I don't believe it will. Please recall the title of this post.

So we will be looking at a Pakatan minus PKR and its 30 MPs, which will give us only 68 MPs. Add on Ku Li's 3rd Force of 34 plus Dr Jeya (PSM) and you'll get 94 only. Worse, PKR by then is likely to join BN, wakakaka.

So assuming the gossip about Ku Li forming the 3rd Force is true, he will still be short of 112 - 94 = 18 MPs.

Will there be 18 or more MPs from PKR who will be prepared to say goodbye to Anwar Ibrahim, leave PKR, and make Ku Li the PM we should have had ages ago? You tell me.

But remember, Anwar will still be around to effect his never-ending story and continuous campaigns of political destabilisation. Don't for a second imagine Anwar will be satisfied with ABU and Ku Li as PM.

In fact, for him it'll be f* ABU and f* Ku Li, he just wants to be PM.

Thus, any change of government with Ku Li as PM will merely transfer Najib's problem of a heel-snapping Anwar and his PKR inner coterie over to Ku Li.