What does Ku Li want?

Zakia Koya, The Heat Malaysia

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah seems to be treading on thin ice – very thin ice nowadays.

It almost seems as if he is on the verge on suicidal when it comes to his political views. And as perception is what drives political speculations, this man who once harboured hopes to be the Prime Minister, is said to be trying to take the driver’s seat again, albeit in not a straight-forward manner.

It almost seems that he is determined that even if he fails to press the pedal once more, he just wants to make sure he is not forgotten in Malaysian Umno politics.

One, however, is not even sure what he wants any more, for his public statements seem to be cluttered with staunch support and in the very same breath, strong criticism for Umno and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Although Ku LI (as Razaleigh is known) had said that he, as an Umno man, will not play against his president and that he is being a loyal party man by standing by Najib, he has also criticised the way Najib had handled the 1MDB financial scandal which has engulfed the nation.

While he said he is not joining hands with Umno rebels and opposition to oust Najib in the Citizen’s Declaration, and that he had never stated any support for it, his latest press statement says the very same thing what the rebels and opposition are saying – a complete transparent report on 1MDB.

“I have always maintained that for any comment on 1MDB to be meaningful, it has to be made upon the Auditor General’s Report on the subject being presented to Parliament. Unfortunately that Report has been classified as State secret under the Official Secrets Act. This is untenable. The Auditor General’s Report on 1MDB must be declassified and made available to MPs and, by extension, to the general public.”

In stating that he is making this call “in consonance with the decision by Najib, who had decided that the Auditor General should, once and for all get to the bottom of the 1MDB issue and submit its findings as a report for the consideration of the Dewan Rakyat”.

He pointed to the Article 107(1) of the Federal Constitution which dictates that the King shall have the right to lay the report to Dewan Rakyat and that there was nothing that states it be made a state secret.

“It would therefore be unconstitutional to prevent that report from being presented to the Dewan Rakyat,” said Ku Li.

Yet, Ku Li very well knows that the complete transparency and expose of 1MDB in Dewan Rakyat may be the end-all for Najib.

All this said and done, many in the younger generation may wonder why is Ku Li even in the political picture – he is now just an MP of Gua Musang, Kelantan – but history speaks.

He was entrusted to handle financial matters of the country, not by one, but three Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He is said to be on the same level as former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, the only difference being that Daim prefers to be in the back scenes pulling the strings while Ku Li preferred to be the star himself.

No one gets appointed to the Finance Minister’s seat unless the tops holds some plans to bring him up up further, and Ku Li was seen as a star in his heydays – for he had the intelligence and charisma.

He is also dubbed the Father of Malaysia’s economy as it was during his political tenure that Petronas came into being and many of the economic policies that Malaysia is standing on today were put into place. It was Ku Li also who first put Malaysia on the global financial map with his outward look.

This is also the man who once commanded a big support from Umno, who once even took on Mahathir himself and harboured to be the PM of Malaysia. And when he failed, he formed Semangat 46.

Umno was then declared illegal when this happened and although S46 proved a failure, it did give some panic to Umno that Ku Li could actually do this.

And Umno, under Mahathir, ‘talked’ him back into joining Umno again. Ever since then, Ku Li has been deemed to be one who has to be watched, just in case, he decides to pull any other stunts that may put a crack in an already much cracked Umno eggshell.

Unfortunately, for those who are overly eager, their political careers in Umno are either put on a short leash or cut short. Ku Li was one of them. He has recently said that he is too old and does not want to be the PM.

“No, I have been in Umno way too long and I am too old to become the prime minister. I contested in the last election not to go after the prime minister position.

Yet again, it seems nowadays he is tugging at that leash while going round and round that pole where the leash is tied to.

And we all know what happens to the one who does that – either you break free and reach for the higher stars, or you strangle yourself in the process.