History repeats itself – Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

If Umno and Barisan Nasional do not manage Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (‘Ku Li”) soon, there will be another round of strenuous politicking in the horizon. The loser of this impending collision will again be – Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Although the scale of this conflict may not be as huge as the conflict between the ex Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi back in 2005 – 2008, the chasm between Ku Li and the party he represents will be bigger if nothing is being done to mitigate the risks ahead.

For a couple of months now, Ku Li had been voicing out his frustrations regarding the oil royalty issue.

And the Government had made a few attempts in answering Ku Li. The most notable one was the public explanation in main newspapers regarding the oil royalty and the Federal Government’s stand on this.

When this issue began to unfold, I almost tear my hair out in disgust.

Why can’t these two opposing parties meet in a more conducive manner and discuss this whole issue without having to cause an outrage on a public platform?

Ku Li had to resort in giving public speech in a stadium while the government had to advertise in newspapers because of this?

If Dato’ Sri Najib’s administration had arranged for a meeting with Ku Li a few months ago,  none of this would happen.

Ku Li has said that he is loyal to Umno. This in itself is a good and enough basis not to treat him like the enemy.

History seems to repeat itself and nobody is learning any lesson from the mistakes made over and over again.

During Pak Lah’s premership, attempts were actively made to shut out his predecessor from the media and from seeing Umno members. Attempts were also made so that this Umno president of 22 years will not be the delegate in the Umno General Assembly of 2006!

This kind of undignified politics was very embarrassing indeed.

In the end, those who were undignified lost power and respect.

Coming back to the present situation, does it kill you to talk at the same table about this matter?

Najib Razak is slightly fortunate this time around as the blogosphere, especially the ones sympathising with BN and Umno’s cause is quite muted in responding to Ku Li. At best, their criticisms towards Ku Li has been a bit restrained.

It’s either he is a non entity, or they still respect him. It could be the latter.

If Ku Li continues to remain unheard by the top leadership of Umno, Ku Li will go for broke and will probably offend a few more people. Blogosphere will have to take a stand on this one. And a full scale character assassination will begin.

This will not augur well for Barisan Nasional.

Naturally, the opposition is riding on Ku Li’s frustrations to gain maximum impact. As the opposition is rattled with so many defections and other problems of their own, this is an opportunity they can’t resist.

Ku Li in a press conference in 2008

Ku Li command some respect from the people, especially lately when all the opposition portals such as Malaysian Insider, MalaysiaKini and Malaysia Today had been singing praises for him in order to manufacture the perception that he is the voice of conscience within Barisan Nasional.

They are building up Ku Li’s clout through this form of thought control so that one day, they hope Ku Li will join the opposition. This will definitely strengthen the opposition’s credibility.

Hence, at every opportunity they could get, they will support Ku Li wholeheartedly. When one is in desperate need to  borrow Ku Li’s credibility, it just shows how lacking Pakatan Rakyat  is in that department.

I have written a couple of articles in the past regarding how Umno can gain a lot of strength and good reputation should they acquire Ku Li’s services.

One, was to appoint him as the Finance Minister.

Since that did not materialise, I suggested he be made an Economic Adviser to the government or, at the very least, a member of Umno’s Presidential Council.

Both did not materialise either.

In fact, he was not even appointed to be a member of Umno Supreme Council!

If he is so disconnected from Umno’s administration, how could any disagreement or dissent be amicably solved?

In the recent Umno’s supreme council meeting, his position was discussed without him being there to defend himself!

I am very surprise with all the callous remarks made by some supreme council members about Ku Li.

Let Ku Li speaks his mind. But more importantly, let him speak his mind during rounds of meetings within the party leadership.

As I recall, most of the people in the current supreme council spoke against Pak Lah without restraint in public not too long ago; even when Pak Lah was still the PM.

If you can do it, so can Ku Li.

Stop being hypocritical, stop playing politics, and do the right thing for God’s sake!

Arrange a meeting. Or a series of meetings.

Najib can do more than saying “We have to hear what the party members have to say”.

Have more dignity please. Umno must not make mistakes over and over again.

As for the oil royalty itself, Umno and BN need to settle this problem before it becomes a disaster. The only people that can give a clearer issue would be Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar and Tun Abdul Rahman Yaakub.

They would be the only living former chiefs of state that had signed the Petronas deed back in 1975. They may still give their input about this issue.