The man who would be PM
But we failed to take into consideration one very important point. And this one very important point is Dr Mahathir is a more seasoned politician than we gave him credit for. And the script for the final scenario was written by him: his puppet Najib became Prime Minister instead of Ku Li who wanted then to be ‘independent’, reform the government, and offer the opposition a role in the government under a Unity Government.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
To sack Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah from Umno is to precipitate the party's own implosion.
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz, Free Malaysia Today
Why is Umno quiet about Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and his Amanah? The answer is that they simply can’t do anything about it.
Even among Umno members there is increasing disquiet about how things are managed.
Saifuddin Abdullah’s recent ‘out-of-line’ statements and Khairy Jamaluddin’s conscientious objections are only tips of the icebergs.
Tengku Razaleigh is merely pointing out the realities. He is still an Umno member – so what can Umno do at the moment?
Umno can’t sack a person of his stature without precipitating its own implosion. So go ahead- sack him and it will make the days of many.
Tengku Razaleigh is of course mindful of the possible repercussions of his actions. He may not be fielded as an Umno candidate in the next elections. He may lose the support of Gua Musang Umno.
Current Umno leaders inconsequential
The last time I spoke to him, he was telling me of these reservations. I pointed out to him that his victory doesn’t just depend on Umno votes.
It depends on the rakyat. Given the history of seeing only 60 % of Umno members voting for their own candidates and 60 % of Malays voting for non-Umno candidates in the last general election, I would rate his chances as being above average.
The opinion of the present Umno leadership is quite simply inconsequential. So that is why Umno is quiet about the whole thing.
At the moment this is what Amanah provides. Amanah provides platform for speaking out against the abuses on the Merdeka heritage.
READ MORE HERE: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/07/27/umno-cant-risk-sacking-ku-li/
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What I am about to say is in response to the article above. It is not something new but what I have said many times in the past. In fact, in my more than one hour interview with TV3 in Perth, I touched on this issue. Unfortunately, TV3 was not ‘brave’ enough to air that part of my interview.
First of all, because of the way Malaysian elections are conducted, even if Barisan Nasional garners just 45% of the popular votes it will still be able to form the federal government. This is the reality of the situation and this is why we need BERSIH -- to reform the electoral system to change this state of affairs.
For Pakatan Rakyat to be able to form the federal government it would need to garner at least 60% of the popular votes. And this is almost impossible if we do not reform the system. Maybe 50% of the popular votes would be possible. But 50% would not give Pakatan Rakyat the federal government. It has to be at least 60%.
This means, short of a massive revamp of the system, it would be impossible for Pakatan Rakyat to form the federal government. And this means we may need to look at Barisan Nasional for the next Malaysian Prime Minister (unless Pakatan Rakyat can do the ‘impossible’ and garner 60% of the popular votes).
Let’s be very clear about one thing. I would love to see the Prime Minister come from Pakatan Rakyat. Whether this ‘someone’ from Pakatan Rakyat is Anwar Ibrahim or Nizar Jamaluddin or Lim Guan Eng or whoever is secondary at the moment. This is not the issue we need to discuss just yet. The issue is, for the meantime, who from Barisan Nasional should be the Prime Minister.
And that was why six years ago back in 2006 we looked at the possibility that this someone from Barisan Nasional, which therefore also meant someone from Umno, has to be someone who is prepared to embark upon a reform agenda.
And this someone, due to lack of any other more suitable alternative, would have to be Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li.
And with that in mind, bloggers, political activists, and civil society members from both sides of the political divide got together to see how Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a.k.a. Pak Lah could be ousted and replaced with Ku Li.
Meeting after meeting was held. Ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was also approached and a few meetings were held with him as well. And it was agreed that Pak Lah would be ousted and Ku Li would replace him.
But there was one condition that Dr Mahathir stipulated and which Ku Li could not agree to. And that one condition was: once Pak Lah is ousted and Ku Li takes over, a Presidential Council would be formed and the new Prime Minister would be ‘guided’ by this Council.
This is just like how the nine Rulers rule, through state Royal Councils. But this Presidential Council would be slightly different. It would be a de facto Prime Minister Council.
Ku Li, of course, did not agree to this and so Dr Mahathir decided to back Najib Tun Razak instead. Najib agreed to become the rubber-stamp Prime Minister with the Presidential Council as the de facto Prime Minister.
The question would be: who will head this Presidential Council -- basically the de facto Prime Minister? And the answer is: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. This, in short, meant that Dr Mahathir would become the de facto Prime Minister while Pak Lah’s successor would be just a rubber-stamp Prime Minister.
Then, along came the number two of the Special Branch of the Military Intelligence, Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin, who claimed he had documentary evidence that Rosmah Mansor and her ADC (and husband) were at the scene of Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder. This most damaging report would thus disqualify Najib and would put Ku Li back in the lead.
The day after I signed my Statutory Declaration, Dr Mahathir summoned Tan Sri Sanusi Junid to his office and asked him whether he had read my SD. Sanusi at first did not know what Dr Mahathir was talking about. After Sanusi had read my SD, Dr Mahathir retorted, “Raja Petra has just killed our horse. We need to find a new one.”
However, before the final nail could be hammered into Najib’s coffin, Kol Azmi did a U-turn and claimed that all the evidence had been removed from the Military Intelligence office and had been destroyed. He also claimed that no copies were made.
Instead of hammering the final nail into Najib’s coffin, it was hammered into my coffin and Najib went on to become the new Prime Minister while Ku Li was shafted in the arse (along with me of course).
Is Ku Li going to be a better Prime Minister? That is what many may ask. The question should be whether Ku Li would be a better Prime Minister than Najib. And whether with Ku Li as Prime Minister, we would have a problem of a Rosmah Mansor acting like Queen Marie Antoinette of France. And whether with Ku Li as Prime Minister we would have a de facto Prime Minister calling the shots and playing the role of the real power behind the throne.
Ku Li made one thing very clear, which unsettled Dr Mahathir like hell. And that one thing is: he would become an ‘independent’ Prime Minister who would press for reforms and even consider forming a ‘Unity Government’ with the opposition.
On the basis of these three promises, we decided to back Ku Li as the new Barisan Nasional (Umno) Prime Minister.
This was back in 2006, two years before the March 2008 general election and one year before the November 2007 BERSIH rally. No one knew then how the opposition was going to perform in the following general election due in 2008 or 2009.
In fact, at that time, there was no Pakatan Rakyat. Pakatan Rakyat had not even been formed yet. And DAP was still an ‘independent’ opposition party and not part of any opposition coalition.
So, our only bet then, in the absence of a strong and viable opposition coalition, was to try to influence changes within Umno and back the best man who could become Prime Minister and bring reforms to Malaysia.
I stress, this was back in 2006, five years ago. And back then this appeared to be the best alternative.
But we failed to take into consideration one very important point. And this one very important point is Dr Mahathir is a more seasoned politician than we gave him credit for. And the script for the final scenario was written by him: his puppet Najib became Prime Minister instead of Ku Li who wanted then to be ‘independent’, reform the government, and offer the opposition a role in the government under a Unity Government.
written by Andykhai, August 01, 2011 15:34:53
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written by LimD, August 01, 2011 13:39:37
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written by Barking out loud, July 31, 2011 17:57:55
No wonder we don't hear so much noise as compared to the time of Abdullah Badawai but still see that he is calling the shots.
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written by Aria, July 29, 2011 06:55:22
Anyway; Ku Li does not stand a chance of becoming the head of UMNO without Pakatan gaining more strength and show definite signs of winning the next elections. Only then would UMNO look within and put Ku Li as the next prime minister.
Pakatan has to find ways to reach out to the people and educate them about democracy. The opposition party of Burma has a TV station in Thailand that broadcast into Burma. Pakatan should look at a radio station in Thailand broadcasting into Malaysia. Without having a fair go at voicing its own opinion on how UMNO is running the country and how Pakatan would run the country, there is little chance of getting more voter.
UMNO’s media power will always manage to confuse the majority of the simple minded people. Unless Pakatan can get a more effective way of reaching out to the rakyat (other then internet and public speeches), Pakatan will unfortunately not gain anymore support. Even if Pakatan now gains more voters it would quickly loose it through UMNO spin.
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written by Rozlan, July 28, 2011 12:50:33
I support AMANAH if it distance itself from UMNO
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written by earthman, July 28, 2011 11:00:26
To God be the glory.
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written by justice seeker, July 28, 2011 08:36:40
BUT THE MAMAK KING'S ULTIMATE AIM WAS TO PLAN FOR HIS OFFSPRING TO BECOME THE FUTURE AMENO EMPEROR BY PUTTING UP DUMBOS WITH FULL CABINET FULL OF SKELETONS AS INTERIM PEEMS. NOW, TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR BOTH HIM AND HIS OFFSPRING.
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written by fireduck, July 28, 2011 08:35:48
So, the question is how effective can Ku Li be to bring change when he cannot even do so against Sleepy Dollah, let alone a ruthless leader like the current one, backed by the evil master? It was so easy for them to shut him up .... they did that simply with the UMNO nomination quota system (an evil master's invention) when he failed to garner enough enough votes to contest the UMNO Presidency. So, to be really fighting for Malaysia, Ku Li must bring change from OUTSIDE Umno.
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written by panca, July 28, 2011 08:13:22
Of course possible if we are talking only with the Red Devil from England!
So RAKYAT when is it time to whack this Devil and its party out of the government?
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written by Yen.CK, July 28, 2011 07:41:23
And now, I still thing this is the best alternative!
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written by southallman, July 28, 2011 04:24:41
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written by mob1900, July 28, 2011 03:51:21
That explains Najeep MongoLIAR's recent hyper-activity in forcing his image on every billboard and public broadcast out there, public support has to be bought and herded now.
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written by antares, July 28, 2011 00:54:01
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written by Rodins Fist, July 28, 2011 00:27:22
RPK, I am surprised you want UMNO to reform. It's better they implode and weaken themselves.
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written by betasigma, July 28, 2011 00:07:14
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written by bikerzon, July 27, 2011 23:21:44
What we want is a GOOD and HONORABLE Malay to head the government not some sleazy corrupt Malay to head it.
I believe UMNO itself is good, just that is it being run by corrupt leaders.
Hope that KuLi could come out with concrete plan for Amanah and I am sure all Malaysian would support it. Revive the spirit of Merdeka!
Don't ask KuLi to quit UMNO or whatsoever, please help KuLi to remain in UMNO as long as possible. He's better serving Malaysian as an UMNO member rather than head logging with UMNO which still have support of Malay majority.
Hidup rakyat!
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written by betasigma, July 27, 2011 23:16:11
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written by syd, July 27, 2011 22:23:36
Badawi made a mistake in allowing mahathir be advisor to proton and petronas. Now, his son in kencana , and proton and petronas contractor sapura, which belonged to his close buddy, will merge and dominate marginal oil field drillings. Both of course are indian muslims. These are the people who dominate malay life and treat them like pawns.
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written by amjoem, July 27, 2011 21:52:08
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written by kclim, July 27, 2011 21:19:10
Darkness is the absence of Light
Political Oppression is the absence Fair elections
An elected Government's Insane Arrogance is the absence of Sane Voting by the Foolish Rakyat at the Ballot box
Barisan Nasional is the absence of good governance as promised by Pakatan Rakyat
Please Vote Pakatan Rakyat regardless of any current happenings during the next general elections.
We must not repeat the mistakes of our blinded parents who trusted and voted in this pariah ruling BN government.
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written by MrHot, July 27, 2011 19:59:49
But as far as my daily coffee shop friends & me, we would vote for Anything But UMNO (ABU) !
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written by AlwaysFair, July 27, 2011 19:56:27
He is the best candidate in a cess-pool full of vermin.
But, am afraid to bet on him just like we did Badawi!!
Why?
Just imagine you have terminal stage cancer (corruption) and you try chemo or radio- therapy (like Kuli) but since the rot has set in for too long and infected most of the major organs (MACC,EC, PDRM,judiciary......)
it may be too late. Because it is too painful and hard to amputate rotten limbs.Do you expect the new head to be able to cut off his own limbs and organs and kill himself?
I would just vote Pakatan for change because I have been taken for a ride for far too long and yearn for a govt with better governance like our SEA neighbours.
I have lost hope in BN, even with an esteemed person like Kuli, because they abuse this country, the resources and her people by their practises and insults.
Don't be fooled again!!
Enough is enough!!
Vote Pakatan for change!!
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written by arazak, July 27, 2011 19:05:59
I would look at the bright side. There is a blessing in disguise that Najib became the PM instead of Ku Li. Here's the reasons;
Incompetent no.1 - Under sleepyhead Dollah Badawi nothing concrete was achieved accept for some empty slogans. People were discontent resulting to the denial of 2/3 majority for the UMNO regime and the PR coalition manged to control 5 states.
Incompetent no.2 - Already when he took the throne he has already been carrying some baggage. And now, at every turn he keeps on making blunders. . ., most are really stupid ones. And thanks to the "self-proclaimed First Lady" and his oxymoron Home Minister Cousin. I need not go to the details of those "blunders" as you and I know what they are?
They, being incompetent is bad for UMNO but good for the PR. So, Incompetent no. 1 and Incompetent no. 2 helps snowballing the peoples' discontent towards the oppressive and thieving regime. You see, if Ku Li had taken over from Dollah Badawi, Ku li might reverse the snowballing discontent effect. This would not be good for PR facing the next GE.
Thank God. . ., it was Najib and not Ku Li that took the reign from Dollah Badawi. If UMNO could loose 5 states during Incompetent no. 1 tenure, imagine how many more states would fall to PR during this proven corrupt and Incompetent no.2 tenure in the next GE, now that the snowball is about to turn into avalanche? Hopefully!
Pete. . ., God works in mysterious ways!
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written by batsman, July 27, 2011 18:56:45
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written by Nixcloud, July 27, 2011 18:55:37
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written by malsia1206, July 27, 2011 18:03:04
Our present generation was raped since the 1970s. It appears our present children's generation is also being raped continously today. But the rakyat must ensure the buck stops right in GE13.
All these high-profile shrewed politicians have gained at our expense. If we remain so naive not to know, our children and their children deserve no better than what we had endured. Wake up and KICK em all out in GE13.
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written by Den, July 27, 2011 17:49:49
when will he stop messing this country around like his mother fxxker family business Satay Ria?
bloody hell...
pi mati la, umno..
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written by hellosunshine, July 27, 2011 17:20:27
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written by Fart Fart Wah, July 27, 2011 17:14:19
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