Is Ku Li making his claim as the next PM?
Tengku Razaleigh has conducted himself with grace and integrity, and his resume is above reproach
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
The Kelantan prince has returned to the limelight. After a long silence, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, fondly known as Ku Li, seems intent on diving into the deep end of Malaysia’s troubled political waters with his attention-grabbing speech in Parliament. In that speech, he did the unthinkable and took the ruling government to task over several issues, the most prominent being the impending implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, or GST.
A little background on Ku Li is perhaps necessary. At the time of writing, Ku Li stands as the longest serving member of Parliament in Malaysia, having served in the Dewan Rakyat since the days of Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. Educated in the Queen’s University of Belfast, Ku Li graduated as a Bachelor of Science in Economics, an educational background that proved to be instrumental in his rise as a politician years later.
While Ku Li has never been a Prime Minister or a Deputy Prime Minister, he has held several key positions that make his prowess in all things financial a force to be reckoned with. Among other things, he was made Finance Minister by Prime Minister Hussein Onn in 1976 following the passing of Razak, and soon after became the Chairman of the Asian Development Bank. He also went on to become chairman of the Islamic Development Bank in 1978, but perhaps his greatest achievement in the realm of finance came in 1977, when he became Chairman of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
In matters of finance, Ku Li’s word is as authoritative as it can get.
So when Ku Li stands up in Parliament and tells Barisan Nasional that Malaysia is not ready for the implementation of the GST with our household and national debts being what they are, his colleagues in Barisan Nasional had better lend their ears. This is a man who has dedicated a significant portion of his life to grasping a fine understanding of matters financial and economic, having been handpicked by Razak to be a de facto Cabinet Minister as the founding Chairman and Chief Executive of Petronas, which supplies the bulk of the nation’s wealth.
