Will Ku Li make a difference?
I have been reading in the international press in the last few
months opinion pieces concerning the active but silent bid by Tengku Razaleigh
Hamzah (Ku Li) to mount a challenge to the leadership of the Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah).
I normally do not pay much attention to such speculative opinion
pieces about Malaysian politics in the international press, but in this
instance I cannot simply ignore the speculation. It appears that the leadership
position of Pak Lah is being "challenged" from all quarters – from his predecessor,
from members of his own cabinet who are said to be loyal to the predecessor,
and from other ambitious and impatient UMNO leaders.
And I cannot but take notice of the speculation when it was splashed
as page one headline over the weekend in the Malay political tabloid,
Siasah. The story in the tabloid is based in its recently
conducted interview with Ku Li at his famous "White House" residence at
Langgak Golf, Kuala Lumpur.
The veteran Umno leader, who is an MP for Gua Musang (Kelantan),
is a former Finance Minister. He is, however, best remembered for the
strongest challenge ever mounted by any Umno leader on the president of
the party many years ago. He failed in his bid for power and had to be put
to wander in the political wilderness, forming a Malay ethnic-based party,
Parti Melayu Semangat 46. He and his party, however, have since rejoined
UMNO.
Ku Li is much older than Pak Lah and is believed to be the latter's
political mentor during the leadership challenge mounted on Mahathir. But
Ku Li's appetite for power has obviously not waned. He told : "I am
ready to serve until the end of my life, if that's the wish of the people!"
The stated reason for his desire to challenge the PM appears to be
rather standard: "I am very worried with the current situation and development
of the national economy, especially with the reluctance of foreigners
to invest in this country."
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Crisis and the kris
But I do believe,
however, that Ku Li has been greatly encouraged by the resurgence of
his personal popularity over the last few months, specifically in relation
to the resurgence of a more aggressive stance in the racial politics of
Umno.
Every time Umno goes through
a period of leadership "crisis" – i.e. a period when the leadership is
not strong enough to defy challenges to it that may come from any and all
quarters – the basic underlying racial politics of Umno would simply take
a more aggressive and defiant stance.
The aggressiveness and defiance is actually no more than merely the
function of the "Malay face" that each and every one of the participating
and competing groups in the leadership tussle is trying to present to the
members of the party – therefore the need for courageous and strong gestures
and expressions of political views. The menacing draw of the kris and
the utterance of threatening words like amuk are but examples of
such gestures.
It was in the context of such a racially-charged political atmosphere
that Ku Li in the recent few months had enjoyed some sort of resurgence
in his personal popularity as a political leader. He became a much sought-after
subject of interviews by the foreign press as well local non-mainstream
media.
Ku Li is now the most popular speaker at seminars and congresses
on ketuanan Melayu (Malay empowerment). The recently held
Malay Language and Literature Congress (whose organisation has now reverted
to Malay NGO's after having been controlled by the government for several
decades) was "officiated" neither by the Prime Minister nor the Minister
of Education, but by Ku Li.
And Ku Li is by no means a dormant or reluctant participant at these
political events. His energy and enthusiasm is legendary and admired,
and his presence is generally and conspicuously well-received, at meetings
just to listen to Dr Mahathir's speech to attack the current PM or even
at Hari Raya open house of Ibrahim Ali.
To some naïve detractors of Pak Lah, Ku Li could be the answer
to their prayers. They see in him a leader who is not only experienced
and capable, but also energetic and courageous in articulating the Malay
issues. These are certainly qualities that UMNO and the Malays need if their
dissatisfaction with Pak Lah is simply his purported indecisiveness, the
priority that he gives to his family members over Malay contractors, and
his tendency to fall asleep at important meetings.
But are these the real problems facing Malay political leadership
in this multi-ethnic nation of Malaysia? To my mind the real problem
is not simply the lack of leaders able to administer and manage the country,
or even to stay awake at meetings. The real problem is the lack of leaders
who are capable of reformulating the Malay issues and agenda as it was
perceived in the forties, the fifties and even the sixties in a manner
more acceptable and palatable today without creating, among Malays and
non-Malays alike, the sense of being left out and marginalised.
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It is the intellectual capability of
these leaders to perceive the future of this nation that we are talking
of here – not just their ability to repeat old songs, utter the same threatening
speeches, or even to draw out the menacing kris every now and then. Sad
to say, I do not see such a capability emerging in two or three generations
of younger UMNO leaders that are being paraded as the leaders of the pemuda,
the puteri and the putera in the last general assembly.
Even more sad is the fact
that the same capacity to think through our "national question" and our
future as a nation is similarly absent among the non-Malay political parties
of the Barisan Nasional who are truly kindred spirits of UMNO. The political
atmosphere created by exchanges between these racial parties basically
remains the same simply because the reaction of the non-Malay parties to
the unchanging antics of the UMNO leaders remain similar to how the reaction
would have been decades ago – sometimes muted (such as in their reaction
to the powerful PM) and sometimes more aggressive and sustained (such as
in their reaction to the "less powerful" Khairy Jamaluddin).
Viewed in the context of the existing atmosphere of our realpolitik,
I find it difficult to share the enthusiasm shown by some quarters towards
the possibility of Ku Li challenging and unseating PM Pak Lah. Given
his distinguished career as a Malay business-friendly Minister of Finance
or leader of Parti Melayu Semangat 46, I do not believe that he has shown
any interest or capability in reformulating the outdated and untenable
political visions of Umno.
Sadly, Malaysia to me must remain for sometimes to come a nation
in waiting, waiting for a messianic leader capable of delivering it from
the intellectual rut it is in now.#
(Printed with permisision)
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