KU LI'S CURSE AGAINST DR MAHATHIR: TUNKU & HISHAM'S DAD WOULD BE LAUGHING IN THEIR GRAVES

Almost 30 years ago, Parti Semangat Melayu 46 or S46 was found by the then arch rival of Tun Dr Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a Ku Li. Tun Dr Mahathir was leading team A faction of UMNO and Ku Li was leading the opposing team B faction. At that time, Ku Li was strongly backed by two former premiers- Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn who were equally against Tun Dr Mahathir’s ultra- conservatism.

Team A and B of UMNO

In 1987, Ku Li with his Team B in UMNO, challenged Tun Mahathir’s Team A to gain control over UMNO. Consequently, Tun M’s Team A won the party election by a mere 43 majority votes. Citing malpractices in the party election process, Ku Li filed a suit to overturn the election results. This had resulted UMNO being declared as an illegal political party in 1988. Cunningly, Tun Dr Mahathir reconstituted UMNO immediately with only Team A members in the Malay-only party.

Formation of Parti Semangat Melayu 46

Vengeful Ku Li formed S46 the same year. The number 46 indicates the year 1946, in which UMNO was formed. While the party presided by Ku Li, the key members were formerly from Team B faction of UMNO- notably Rais Yatim as the party’s Deputy President, Ibrahim Ali as the Youth Chief, shabery Cheek and Tun Salleh Abbas in other positions.  However, S46 only survived 8 years due to its unpopularity among the Malays and its severe losses during the 1990 and 1995 general elections respectively. Subsequently, in the year 1996, S46 was disbanded and most of its members returned to UMNO.

Tun M’s Racist Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia

Fast forward to 2016, the Grand Old Man mooted his own party called Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia or BERSATU to take on the mighty Najib in the upcoming General Election. But unfortunately, BERSATU became a subject of heavy criticisms, even though it is yet to be approved by Registrar of Societies (ROS). PKR and DAP cast a heavy scepticism over BERSATU’s motive and agenda. Even DAP Youth made its stance clear: not to cooperate with this newly found party citing its UMNO like policies. Whereas, PKR has described BERSATU’s racist policies as out dated, for the current political environment.

Although BERSATU has agreed to work in line with Pakatan Harapan to fight BN, their ultra- racist policies totally against the opposition coalition’s political stance. On the 8th of Aug, Its pro tem President, Muhyiddin Yassin and co-founder Syed Saadiq surprised the Rakyat by the party’s membership policy. According to that policy, non-Malays can only be associate members and forbidden from voting or contesting any posts in the party. The reason for the Bumiputera-only policy is that to sway Malay votes from BN, especially in the Malay majority constituencies. Due to this policy, BERSATU also expected to be an alternative Malay party for the UMNO’s castaways and defectors.

BERSATU is a curse

S46 made the similar move. It also joined DAP and Parti Rakyat Malaysia under The Gagasan Rakyat coalition. In addition, it also joined another coalition known as Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) comprised of Muslim parties such as PAS, BERJASA, HAMIM and KIMMA to face BN in the 1990- General Election. But sadly, only manage to win 8 of 180 seats.

Now, coming back to BERSATU, local political pundits of the opinion that the possibility of an undesirable post-general election results for this unlikely opposition party is great. Given the current political scenario, its even hard for BERSATU to survive until the 15th General Election, unlike S46 who managed to survive at least two General Elections. Therefore, wouldn’t it make more sense to call this very existence of BERSATU as Ku Li’s curse against Tun Dr Mahathir?!

- MAIL BAG