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Wednesday, 23-Jun-2004 9:39 PM Make sure only I am nominated: Pak Lah Malaysia’s Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) is panicking. He feels there are moves to dislodge him as the Acting President of Umno, which means he would have to resign as the Acting Prime Minister as well. And, to pre-empt this, around two months ago he summoned all the Umno Division Heads and instructed them that only he must be nominated for the post of Umno President and there should be no others nominated. This is Pak Lah’s first major booboo. He suspects there is a strong possibly he might be challenged, he is not sure, but he blinked nevertheless. And that reflects his weakness and his sense of insecurity. If he had remained cool and first gauged the situation before acting, he might have come out looking better. As it stands now, he made his move even before he was sure he would be challenged so this shows he is running scared. Pak Lah suspects that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li) might challenge him for the Umno Presidency. Of course he is not sure but he does not want to take any chances. But I suppose Pak Lah has no choice. If he waits until Ku Li has received a couple of nominations before acting it would be too late. He must make his move before Ku Li does. And this demonstrates he is scared of Ku Li. Ku Li holds no position in government while Pak Lah is the Acting Prime Minister. Why should Ku Li be a threat to him then? Are there some writings on the wall that only Pak Lah can see and which the rest of us cannot? Ku Li’s boys are currently criss-crossing the length and breadth of Malaysia to assess Ku Li’s chances of winning the Umno Presidency if he was to go for it. The feedback from the ground is pretty positive. Ku Li has an extremely good chance of winning hands down. The only snag is: he needs to garner nominations from at least one-third of the 191 Umno Divisions to qualify as a candidate and to prove he is a force to be reckoned with. Ku Li is not holding his punches. He has made it very clear he will contest the Umno Presidency if he can get these nominations. The problem is, can he get the nominations? Getting the votes is not difficult. That, no one has any reservations about - they know Ku Li can win. The voting is done by closed ballot and there are 13 delegates from each division, so there is no way anyone can track whom these delegates vote for - so Ku Li can be assured of the votes. But the nominations are done openly and normally the division heads ‘control’ whom his division nominates. Controlling 2,500 delegates is quite difficult as the mid-1980s tussle between Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Team A and Ku Li’s Team B proved. However, controlling 191 divisions is easier. And that is why Pak Lah summoned these division heads to see him. If he can control the division heads, then he will not need to control the 2,500 delegates. If none of the 191 Umno divisions nominate Ku Li, then Pak Lah wins uncontested. It is as simple as that. Ku Li’s challenge will be a non-starter. The question that now comes to mind is, is what Pak Lah did a violation of Umno’s Code of Ethics. Umno’s Code of Ethics does not allow for any campaigning, bribery, coercion, and so on. You cannot even print cards to distribute to the branches, divisions or delegates. To violate this Code of Ethics would result not only in your disqualification but possibly a sacking from the party as well. What Pak Lah did then clearly violates Umno’s Code of Ethics and he should be disqualified from contesting as well as sacked from the party. All it needs is for one or two of those 191 division heads to lodge an official complaint with Umno’s Disciplinary Committee for all hell to break loose. Then there is the matter of abuse of power. Pak Lah has abused his authority by summoning the division heads to demand that he and only he receives nominations for the Umno Presidency. Pak Lah can face criminal charges if the police or Anti-Corruption Agency decides that Pak Lah has committed an act of corruption or abuse of authority just like how Anwar Ibrahim was alleged to have done. Ku Li is certainly preferred over Pak Lah to lead this country. There are many points working in Ku Li’s favour. First there is the matter of Pak Lah’s Islam Hadari (progressive Islam). Pak Lah introduced the Islam Hadari concept to counter the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), which is being accused of propagating radical Islam. Actually this is hogwash. There is no such thing as progressive Islam or regressive Islam (Islam Badwi). Pak Lah may have thought he is brilliant to have come up with such an idea. But the truth is, many Malays, especially those in Umno, fear any form of Islam, Hadari or otherwise. Those who support Islam or the concept of an Islamic State are all in PAS. Those who are in Umno do not want any form of an Islamic system even if it is supposed to be moderate Islam. So, many Umno division heads are not in support of Pak Lah’s so-called brand of Islam, which they view as still an Islamic system by just another name. Then there is the non-Muslim community, in particular the Chinese business community, to think about. Most are not comfortable with any form of Islamic programme, whether it be Umno’s version or PAS’ version, so they are wary of Pak Lah. They feel Pak Lah is trying to outdo PAS and this Islam ‘race’ between Umno and PAS is unnerving them. The Chinese businessmen also expect next year to see Malaysia’s economy under pressure. They are bracing for a downturn in the car and property markets. And, once this happens, the other sectors will feel the affect as well. It is like dominoes. When one falls, it brings the others down with it. While they are confident of Ku Li’s capabilities at managing the economy, they feel Pak Lah is going to make a mess of it. The businessmen are therefore backing Ku Li for President as they feel he will make a better Prime Minister than Pak Lah once it is time to prop up the economy. And there are many ways the businessmen can influence the outcome of the party elections. Other than contributing to Ku Li’s campaign fund, they can also set up betting syndicates to place bets on Ku Li winning the Presidency. Once that happens, and hundreds of millions will be at stake, then money will change hands to ensure Ku Li wins. Ku Li need not even buy any votes and open himself to charges of ‘money politics’. The betting syndicates that will stand to lose hundreds of millions if Ku Li loses will do the dirty work of vote buying to protect their investment. The next couple of months are going to be most interesting indeed. Pak Lah will go out of his way to ensure Ku Li does not receive a single nomination for the post of Umno President. Ku Li’s boys will try to get him at least 60 or 70 nominations. If Pak Lah wins, Ku Li will not qualify to contest the Umno President’s post. If Ku Li secures his nominations, he will make a bid for the post and he will win. If Ku Li wants the Umno Presidency, he must make his bid now. Currently it is a vacant post and for all intents and purposes both Pak Lah and Ku Li are vying for an empty seat. So there is no harm in Ku Li contesting against Pak Lah for the seat. But once Pak Lah wins this time around, even though uncontested, the post will no longer be vacant and Pak Lah will no longer be just the Acting President but the elected President. The next time around, if Ku Li decides to go for it in 2007, he would be viewed as trying to ‘topple’ Pak Lah. This would not be well received and Ku Li will not get the support that he has now. So, like it or not, if Ku Li wants to be Prime Minister, it is now or never. And let us hope Ku Li does go for it and wins in the process. The future of Malaysia will be more secure with Ku Li in the driver’s seat seeing that the Umno-led Barisan Nasional is going to be in power at least until 2009.
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