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Thursday, 08-Jul-2004 10:18 AM Who will be the one to bell the cat? The battle lines are drawn. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li) is going to make a bid for the top job; that of the Umno Presidency, which would then automatically make him the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Ku Li has tried this before in the mid-1980s -- once for the Deputy’s post and then for the Presidency. But he failed both times. The first time he failed because the then Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, openly endorsed the other contender for the Deputy’s post, Musa Hitam -- though he had contradictorily declared that the post is vacant and he is not supporting anyone, so may the best man win. Understandably, when the Prime Minister endorses one candidate, the other would have little chance of winning. However, even then Ku Li did not do too badly for someone fighting weighed down with a handicap. The second time around, when Ku Li challenged Dr Mahathir for the Presidency, he actually won. Through silap mata (a sleight of hands), though, the ‘official’ results showed he had lost, but by a very slim margin. Dr Mahathir then continued to rule and since then the contest for the two top posts in Umno have been declared ‘illegal’. First they made it practically impossible for anyone to contest the posts by awarding ten ‘bonus’ votes for every one nomination for the post. This would mean the incumbent, who would logically be the one to receive these nominations, would win even before the race starts. However, when Anwar Ibrahim, the challenger, received the nominations for the number two post instead of the incumbent, Ghaffar Baba -- forcing Ghaffar to gracefully step aside and allow Anwar to win uncontested -- they abolished this rule. They realised the knife could cut both ways and it could backfire drastically if the challenger instead of the incumbent receives the nominations. Then they passed this ‘rule’ that there should be no contest for the number one and number two slots. This was achieved through the Umno Supreme Council coming out with a ‘resolution’ every three years, or whenever it is time for a contest, that the two top slots should not be contested. The fact that this was illegal and the resolution violated the party constitution -- which allows for all posts to be contested -- did not seem to perturb the members who are all in Umno to ‘uphold democracy’. Now they are at it again. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) and Najib Tun Razak are both Acting President and Acting Deputy President respectively. This would therefore make them Acting Prime Minister and Acting Deputy Prime Minister. They would need to be ‘confirmed’ to their posts this September. But they do not want this confirmation through an election but by winning uncontested. And, to achieve this, all the 191 Umno divisions have been told to ensure that only Pak Lah and Najib are nominated. This would give them both automatic wins. This is not so easy as they thought it would be though. No doubt some states have already complied. But it was done with much grumbling and dissatisfaction from the ground. Take Sabah State as one example. Musa Aman, the Umno Chief Minister of that state, has declared that all the Umno Sabah divisions will be nominating only Pak Lah and Najib for the two top posts. No doubt Musa is just kow towing to the boss and he knows better than to defy the boss lest he suffer the same fate as Anwar Ibrahim. But Umno Sabah is not happy with this. At the Umno Sabah meeting last week, it was reported that tempers flared and there was much unhappiness about this move. More than half the Umno Sabah divisions support Ku Li for the Presidency and, if left to their own devices, Ku Li would receive at least 25 nominations from Sabah. Ku Li needs at least 60 to 70 nominations to not only qualify but to give the Umno members and delegates confidence he has a good chance of winning the Umno Presidency if he challenges Pak Lah for it. And he already ‘has’ the required number of nominations. But they are all at the moment ‘underground’. Sabah is waiting for the West Malaysian Umno divisions to first nominate Ku Li for the Presidency, then they would follow suit. If Ku Li can get at least 30 or so nominations from West Malaysia, then the 25 nominations from Sabah would materialise. But the West Malaysian divisions are also playing the waiting game. If Sabah makes the first move, then they too would throw in their lot with Ku Li. To pre-empt any possibility of Sabah taking the lead, which would then prompt the West Malaysian divisions to follow suit, Musa Aman came out with his declaration last week that all the Sabah divisions are behind the incumbents. This is a classic case of who is going to be the one to bell the cat. Ku Li has enough divisions behind him. But no one is prepared to be the first to come forward. If three or four divisions take the lead, then, as Ku Li himself said, “It would start to snowball”. And everyone knows, once a snowball starts moving, it gains in size as it rolls along. Ku Li’s biggest challenge is to find who is going to be that first -- the brave mouse that will bell the cat. Once someone comes forward and takes the lead, the others would follow super-fast and Ku Li would get his 60 to 70 nominations. And, once that happens, Ku Li will certainly win. Winning the Umno Presidency is no effort for Ku Li. Getting his nominations is. And that is what Ku Li is working on even as we speak.
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