Rahim Thamby Chik's warning to Umno that the opposition is eying Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as premier should they come into power is mischievous.
This assessment by former Umno vice-president Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik pre-supposes that between the three, neither one accepts the leader of each party as a future PM.
It also assumes further, that Razaleigh, known as Ku Li, commands a number of elected MPs to give him a standing in future negotiations.
Where will he get the MPs?
Well, Rahim seems to believe that Ku Li has 20-30 people lined up to stand as MPs. And these ‘candidates’ are all aligned to him.
My question is where are these people? Are they in Umno or are they in the opposition camp?
Rahim’s nervous prognosis that the there are attempts by the opposition parties to invite Ku Li hinges on the theory that the 13th general election will deliver upon us a hung-parliament.
Rahim claims such a situation is ‘untenable’ because it will create political instability.
He says Umno must work hard to get a two thirds majority.
I am not going to respond to Rahim’s nervous prognosis of the 13th general election but I must admit to being bemused by his attempt to involve Ku Li in such a scenario.
To qualify as a participant in any future negotiations should a hung parliament comes into being, Ku Li must be head of a political party.
Right now, Ku Li is in Umno and doesn’t head a party. Neither is he a leader of any faction within Umno.
Mischievous Rahim
Could Rahim’s advice be another attempt to isolate Ku Li from Umno?
Ku Li is far too principled to agree to being appointed as leader of government on a personal-to-holder-basis. He will be a figurehead.
Umno people’s response to this would be because ‘Ku Li has never disowned the ambitions to become PM’.
So my answer is – why should he not have that ambition?
He was cheated of becoming one before. He has all the credentials to become one, and Umno folk know this.
But here’s an interesting piece of inside information.
When certain Umno people wanted to kick out (former premier) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, they approached Ku Li for a solution.
Their agenda was only one – because of (current Umno president) Najib Tun Razak’s hesitation, they went to see Ku Li asking him to stand as Umno president and Muhyiddin (Yassin) as deputy president.
This group was made up of powerful people, united at that time, by their intense disapproval and loathing of Abdullah.
My point here is this – at that time, they didn’t think it was inappropriate for Ku Li to become Umno president and if he had won, go on to become PM of Malaysia.
At that point in time Ku Li’s ambition wasn’t an issue. His age wasn’t an issue. The fundamental objective then was to remove Pak Lah.
In which case what mischief is Rahim scheming now?.
The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist. This is an excerpt from his blog sakmongkolak47.
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