Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH: THE UMNO, PKR AND PAS INTERNAL STRIFE (PART 21)

So Dr Mahathir owed his 22-year career as Prime Minister to Anwar and Najib — Najib for swinging and Anwar for blackmailing Najib into swinging. And then Dr Mahathir put Anwar in jail and now wants to oust Najib.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have told this story before, maybe a few times, in fact. But now that a respected and credible politician, Shahrir Samad, has finally revealed what he calls Najib Tun Razak’s ‘betrayal’, this sort of allows me to, again, relate one of my favourite stories that I never tire of telling.

Anyway, you can watch the video of what Shahrir said below. Shahrir calls it Najib’s betrayal (belot). But then it all depends on which side of the political fence you happen to be on. Back in 1987, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Team A. Shahrir, who was loyal to Tun Musa Hitam, was Team B. Najib, who aspired to take over the post of Umno Youth Leader from Anwar Ibrahim, was wavering between Team Aand Team B.

No doubt some say that Najib was gutless or had no balls and so on. They say Najib had no principles and was too scared to take a stand. But that would all depend on your point of view. Others may say that Najib was shrewd and a shrewd politician, just like a good poker player, does not show all his cards until and unless he is sure he has a winning hand.

In other words, Najib waited first to see where the chips were going to fall before deciding whether he would align himself to Team A or align himself to Team B. If he had aligned himself to Team B, then Team A would call him a traitor. And if he had aligned himself to Team A, then Team B would call him a traitor. So you will always be seen as a traitor by ‘the other side’ anyway. That is an occupational hazard in politics.

What happened that day back in 1987 during the Team A versus Team B tussle for power was that Najib was blackmailed into aligning himself to Team A. So, of course, Team B, or in this case Shahrir, in the video below, calls Najib a traitor and classifies his action as a betrayal.

In one of the earlier episodes in this series of articles, I related how Tun Hussein Onn wanted to appoint Tun Ghazali Shafie as his Deputy when he (Hussein) took over as Prime Minister upon the death of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

However, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Dr Mahathir, and Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba did not agree. They insisted that Hussein choose his new deputy from amongst one of the three Umno Vice Presidents.

Tengku Razaleigh proposed that Hussein appoint Dr Mahathir as his Deputy. Tengku Razaleigh was prepared to make way for Dr Mahathir on the understanding that when Dr Mahathir takes over as Prime Minister then he (Tengku Razaleigh) would become Dr Mahathir’s deputy.

But when Dr Mahathir took over as Prime Minister he refused to appoint Tengku Razaleigh as his number two. Dr Mahathir said he will allow the party to decide whom they want as the Deputy Prime Minister and this resulted in a contest between Tengku Razaleigh and Musa Hitam.

Then, after saying he would not get involved and would let the party decide, Dr Mahathir hinted that he prefers Musa rather than Tengku Razaleigh. Dr Mahathir probably thought it was safer to have Musa rather than Tengku Razaleigh as his deputy because it is always wise to not appoint someone as strong or stronger than you as your number two.

So Musa won and this created a serious rift in Umno. Tengku Razaleigh challenged Musa a second time around and, again, lost. Musa was pissed and he wanted Dr Mahathir to get rid of Tengku Razaleigh. But if Dr Mahathir did that then Musa would become too strong. So he needed Tengku Razaleigh around so that he can check Musa and divide and rule Umno, the way the British does things.

Dr Mahathir did not sack Tengku Razaleigh from the Cabinet and instead demoted him from Finance Minister to Trade Minister. This, of course, pissed both Tengku Razaleigh and Musa — Tengku Razaleigh for being demoted and Musa because he realised that Dr Mahathir had been playing him all along and had just been using him to keep Tengku Razaleigh in check.

So Tengku Razaleigh and Musa, after realising they had both been suckered by Dr Mahathir, decided to become friends and gang up on Dr Mahathir. And that was how Team A and Team B were born. Dr Mahathir, the leader of Team A, was challenged by Musa and Tengku Razaleigh, the two main players ofTeam B.

Team A and Team B were about evenly matched. It was not sure yet which of the two teams was going to win. But many suspected that Team B could actually win basically because they had stronger personalities in their team.

The brother of the notorious Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa, Azmi, called me and Kamaruddin Jaafar, at that time the Political Secretary to the then Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar, for a meeting in the Concord Hotel Kuala Lumpur, at that time called the Merlin Hotel.

Azmi showed us the computer printouts that revealed Team B was ahead of Team A by about 50 votes or so. But they needed Umno Youth to support Team B. If Umno Youth supports Team B then they would be assured of winning. As payback, they would horse-trade and make sure that Anwar Ibrahim wins one of the three Umno Vice President’s seats.

Kamaruddin and I went to meet Anwar to tell him about Team B’s proposal. All Anwar had to do was to agree to support Team B and Dr Mahathir would be out and Anwar would become the Vice President of Umno. But then Tengku Razaleigh and Musa would become Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively.

Anwar said no. We are not to make any deal with Team B but are to support Dr Mahathir. Meanwhile, Najib had been appointed the Acting Head of Umno Youth. Najib was told if he wants to get confirmed as the Umno Youth head and not face any challenge, which means he would get kicked out, he has to support Dr Mahathir.

Basically Anwar put a gun to Najib’s head. Support Dr Mahathir or die. Najib decided that becoming the Umno Youth head is better than dying so he agreed to support Dr Mahathir. And because of that Dr Mahathir won and went on to become Malaysia’s longest-serving Prime Minister instead of getting kicked out after just six years as Prime Minister.

And Dr Mahathir managed to stay another 16 years as Prime Minister instead of getting kicked out after just six years because Najib swung, or, in the words of Shahrir, betrayed Team B. And he swung because Anwar blackmailed him and threatened to finish him off by making sure he does not become the Umno Youth head if he does not support Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir has more in common with Lee Kuan Yew than he would like to admit. Did Lee Kuan Yew not do exactly the same thing?

So now you know why Dr Mahathir ‘allowed’ Anwar to oust Ghafar and then forced Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take Najib as his deputy. Dr Mahathir owed both Anwar and Najib big-time. Dr Mahathir was already dead-meat in 1987 until Anwar and Najib threw him a lifeline or talian hayat.

And that was what Shahrir was saying in his video below although not in so much details and not ascheong hei as my story.