Ku Li the sixth Tan Sri finally exposed

Plan 2015 was Ku Li had hoped to take over as Prime Minister once Najib was ousted through a vote of no confidence (even though he held no Cabinet position, which many say is quite silly). Now, Plan 2016 is, he is trying to get into the Cabinet first. Then, Plan 2017, after the next general election, he would take over as the Deputy Prime Minister once he can engineer a clash between the two Umno Vice Presidents.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Since my last article, ANC and Pakatan are scattering in the wind, there has been a most interesting development when the full text of Anwar Ibrahim’s letter from prison, Warkah dari penjara, was published.

It is actually a very long and meandering letter (it sort of goes from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh via Kota Bharu), which Rafizi Ramli has confirmed is authentic, although Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin said is a fake (which we will discuss why later), just like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 1.2 million bogus signatures on that ‘Save Malaysia’ petition.

Anyway, if you want to read the full text you can do so at the link above. What I want to talk about, however, is regarding just two of the paragraphs in that long letter, which goes as follows:

Saya amalkan pendirian yang sama tatkala menyingkap inisiatif penandatangan akuan bersumpah bersama Tengku Razaleigh yang kini terkubur. Kita hanya baru sahaja terlibat dengan ‘akuan bersumpah – kemelut SD’. Jaminan yang sama diberikan secara tertutup. 

Dan dalam keterujaan atau keterdesakan untuk mengubah tampuk kepimpinan negara, kita berikan komitmen. Sekarang ia menjadi bahan sindiran dan memalukan, khususnya apabila Ku Li sendiri menafikan keterlibatan beliau dan menganggap rancangan tersebut sebagai tidak masuk akal. Beliau licik mempergunakan SD ini untuk meletakkan diri beliau sebagai calon kompromi apabila berlaku pertembungan atau kebuntuan antara Zahid dan Hisham.

Now, if you can remember, last year Malaysia Today revealed the conspiracy of the six Tan Sri. One of those six Tan Sri was supposed to be Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li, who actually many did not realise is also a Tan Sri.

Ku Li, however, denied that he was one of the six Tan Sri. Ku Li confessed that the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) conspirators did approach him and did invite him to join the conspiracy to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak through a vote of no confidence in Parliament. According to Ku Li, though, he had refused to join them and instead informed Najib about the conspiracy to oust him.

There was a stir for a short while about ten months ago when Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi revealed that a mystery man was going to meet Najib that same night to inform the Prime Minister about the conspiracy to oust him. This mystery man, said Zahid, was also going to reveal all those who were involved in the conspiracy.

The media rushed to the Prime Minister’s residence and waited almost the whole night but no one turned up. It seems Zahid had prematurely let the cat out of the bag and this frightened that mystery man. Some of us, though, knew that the mystery man was actually Ku Li and that he did not want it to be known it was he. And that was why he did not turn up.

At first many thought that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the head honcho of the ANC, was the mastermind behind the planned vote of no confidence in Parliament (Mahathir did say it was not him but that the conspirators had approached him about it). And the impression that Ku Li gave was that ‘others’ were plotting this and that he was just an invitee and was not the host. He, in fact, even said he refused to join them when invited to do so.

Then DAP’s Anthony Loke revealed that Ku Li was the one who had mooted the whole thing and that it was Ku Li’s people who had gone round to lobby for signatures for the Statutory Declarations (SDs). Ku Li, of course, denied it, as usual. However, according to Anthony Loke, the plan was they would remove Najib as Prime Minister through a vote of no confidence in Parliament, after which Ku Li will then take over as Prime Minister.

Now it looks like it was the other way around after all, according to Anwar. So this means Anthony Loke was right. It was Ku Li who spearheaded the whole thing. So, in short, Ku Li was actually the person behind the move to oust Najib through a vote of no confidence in Parliament. And part of the plan was that once Najib is ousted then Ku Li would become the new Prime Minister.

And that is what Anwar meant as the compromise candidate (calon kompromi, as how Anwar put it). Ku Li would be acceptable to both Umno-Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan. So he would be a sort of compromise candidate for both sides of the political divide.

But that 2015 plan failed. They did not get enough MPs to support the vote of no confidence against Najib. So Ku Li abandoned the Plan 2015 and embarked on Plan 2016. But for Plan 2016 he had to lower his sights and settle for Deputy Prime Minister instead.

Ku Li had to first of all get into the Cabinet as a Minister. Then he would position himself as an alternative or compromise Deputy Prime Minister. But that can only happen in the event the two Umno Vice Presidents, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Hishammuddin Hussein, clash. If that happens then Najib may be forced to discard both Vice Presidents and choose a third alternative or outsider instead as a compromise.

Normally the Deputy Prime Minister must be from the ranks of one of the Umno Vice Presidents. By convention the Deputy Prime Minister cannot be an outsider. But if the only two remaining Umno Vice Presidents clash (and since the third Umno Vice President, Shafie Apdal, is now in limbo) then Najib would be forced to look at an outsider as the new Deputy Prime Minister. And, of course, this outsider or compromise Deputy Prime Minister was going to be Ku Li. And, to make sure it would be him, Ku Li was working very closely with someone in Najib’s inner circle who is supposed to slow talk or sweet talk the Prime Minister into appointing Ku Li as the new Deputy Prime Minister.

And that was why two days ago Ku Li asked that the report on 1MDB be declassified. Ku Li is hoping that Najib will try to appease him and stop him pushing the 1MDB issue by appointing him to the Cabinet. And Ku Ki’s ‘inside man’ will whisper in Najib’s ear that the way to pacify Ku Li would be to appoint him a Cabinet Minister.

Ku Li is aiming to be the new Finance Minister as compensation for not getting appointed as the Petronas Adviser, which he had asked for but the post was given to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi instead. And once in the Cabinet Ku Li can work his way up to Deputy Prime Minister once the two Umno Vice Presidents clash.

The million-dollar question is why would Ku Li even think that there is going to be a clash between Zahid and Hishammuddin? Are they up to something to make sure that the clash happens? And if so what is Ku Li and his ‘inside man’ planning to make sure that Zahid and Hishammuddin clash to ensure that Ku Li can take over as Deputy Prime Minister?

Yes, Ku Li may be small but he has a huge ambition. Plan 2015 was Ku Li had hoped to take over as Prime Minister once Najib was ousted through a vote of no confidence (even though he held no Cabinet position, which many say is quite silly). Now, Plan 2016 is, he is trying to get into the Cabinet first. Then, Plan 2017, after the next general election, he would take over as the Deputy Prime Minister once he can engineer a clash between the two Umno Vice Presidents.

And that, basically, was what Anwar revealed in his letter from prison.