Abdul Kadir’s Resignation: Will Ku Li Be Next?

(Malaysian Digest) – Recently, both have openly criticized Umno and there are indications of the two veteran leaders leaving the party. Abdul Kadir has finally proven that the rumor is true and now we are waiting for Tengku Razleigh’s next move.

American lawyer and politician Bainbridge Colby once said, “An intelligent and conscientious opposition is a part of loyalty to country.”

The definition of the word ‘opposition’ according to the Oxford’s Advanced Learners Dictionary is the main political party that is opposed to the government; the political parties that are in a parliament but are not part of the government. The definition of a ‘government’ is the group of people who are responsible for controlling a country. Notice it says ‘PEOPLE’, referring to a group of people opposing another group of people (running the country), not a country, meaning being an opposition is not a sign of disloyalty to one’s own country.

Yesterday, Umno veteran and former minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir announced his resignation from Umno. He sent a later to Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. This was a follow-up to the challenge by Tengku Adnan for him to resign from the party last week. This past few months Abdul Kadir has been extremely vocal in criticizing the party. He was reported to have claimed that the Barisan Nasional (BN) gave between RM200 to RM1,000 to buy votes in the last general election.

Now let us recap our memory. In 2008, Datuk Ibrahim Ali won the parliamentary seat of Pasir Mas under the ticket of PAS. Ibrahim or Tok Him as he’s popularly known was a member of Umno. Soon after winning over Pasir Mas he left PAS citing his fallout with the Islamist party. Then there was another Umno leader and former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim who defected to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in June 2009 but only to leave the latter in November 2010.

The big question right now would be Abdul Kadir’s next move and whether fellow Amanah member Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah will follow suit. Recently, both have openly criticized Umno and there are indications of the two veteran leaders leaving the party. Abdul Kadir has finally proven that the rumor is true and now we are waiting for Tengku Razleigh’s next move. It is not a farfetched possibility seeing as they’ve been a couple of Umno leaders who had recently done something unheard of in the past by joining DAP, namely Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz and Aspan Alias. However, the Kelantan prince who’s popularly known as Ku Li is yet to comment on Abdul Kadir’s resignation.

I am naive enough to expect Abdul Kadir to make full use of his resignation to go all out in revealing more skeletons in Umno’s closet and I’m assuming that there are plenty of skeletons and one hell of a ginormous closet. We are yet to decide on whether Abdul Kadir is a hero or just another Ibrahim Ali or Zaid Ibrahim. We must remember, like Ibrahim, Zaid, Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali, Ezam Mohd Nor, Saifuddin Nasution and many more, Abdul Kadir was an Umno member. That to me is a BIG deal.

But then again let me be clear on this matter – contrary to popular belief, being an opposition is not a sign of disloyalty to a country but corruption and stealing taxpayers’ money definitely is.