Sanusi – A Mahathir loyalist till the end
Like Mahathir, the former Kedah MB joined politics at a young age and was known for his intellect and outspokenness
OBITUARY
John Chin, Berita Daily
Former Umno secretary-general Sanusi Junid breathed his last in the predawn hours of today, at his private residence in Bangsar where he had resettled to after retiring from a political career spanning some five decades.
Like his fellow Kedahan leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Sanusi was a student leader who plunged into politics at a young age and persisted due to circumstances rather than personal choices.
Although retired from active politics, Sanusi continued to write about the Malay psyche of politics and agonised over how his fellow bumiputeras could not make stronger economic progress compared to others, with his writings often filled with eloquent reasoning and an academic touch.
Sanusi, who held various positions throughout his colourful career, including as an outspoken agriculture minister, passed away at the age of 75.
It is believed that he was nursing a chronic ailment, which had prevented him from offering his voice in a more forceful manner to the Opposition seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Sanusi was a voracious reader, frequently sharing with people about what he had read and digested from various books, especially those concerning the historical nature of things.
His favourite people in the world were the Japanese.
In fact, some quarters speculated that Mahathir’s Look East Policy in the 1980s had its roots in the conversations he shared with the amenable Sanusi.
The two had a lot in common but the eccentric elements of Sanusi had unfortunately combined to cut short his great desire to transform his beloved Kedah from an agrarian society into a progressive, modern community.
When then prime minister Mahathir tried to appoint him as the Kedah Menteri Besar in 1995, Sanusi had to wait his bidding as his predecessor Osman Aroff had refused to budge from the post.
After six months of waiting on the sidelines, Sanusi, who was then the Kuah assemblyman after Langkawi split from the Jerai parliamentary seat, assumed the post in 1996 but the manner of his arrival had muted his ability to lead.
“Being forced into an administration is not exactly welcoming. Sanusi needed time to build support but he never got it due to national politics,” said Ibrahim Zain, a political observer of Kedah politics.
By 1999, with the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim as the deputy premier, Sanusi, who was fiercely devoted to Mahathir and a staunch critic of Anwar, could not perform his best and Kedah was almost lost to PAS.
He was then replaced by Syed Razak Syed Zain, leaving him a bitter man with his dreams of grandeur for Kedah shattered.
But in that brief period as menteri besar, he fired up the imagination of Kedahans with his unconventional initiatives, such as boosting yields for farmers by growing padi on rooftops and building a Book Village in Lubuk Semilang, Langkawi.
However, the projects were unsustainable, largely due to lack of interests.
Sanusi might have been ahead of his time, Ibrahim said, adding that simpletons in villages could not fathom what he had wanted to execute in the state.
Instead, a sizeable number gravitated to PAS’ religion-themed politics headed by the late PAS president Fadzil Noor.
Man of principle
But Sanusi’s legacy is here to stay.
He promoted the culture of reading, and he was the pioneering technocrat in Kedah, preferring to allow the likes of Mahathir and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin to soak in the national limelight.
His presence was unmistakable in the glory days of Kedah politics where many from the rice-bowl state assumed key positions in the government and the private sector.
Most notably, Sanusi stuck to his principles and stood by Mahathir to the end.
He was with Mahathir in challenging former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and he also voiced out in support of the former when he took on Najib’s administration.
Sanusi was born in 1943 to Acehnese parents in Yan, one of the country’s poorest districts, and grew up in poverty.
Fiercely proud of his roots, he had often helped the Acehnese community in their struggles for a better life, leading many quarters to brand him as the “godfather” of the Acehnese community in Kedah.
With his passing, Mahathir has lost yet another of his trusted lieutenants from among a group which had supported him since the 1960s.
It also shows that the opposition front of Pakatan Harapan has a rather old generation heading into the 14th general election.
And they are running out of time to make a difference to the country, especially if the opposition cannot dethrone Barisan Nasional after some 60 years.
Incidentally, Sanusi left Mahathir the day after Pakatan Harapan had unveiled its election manifesto, to which the former might have given some input.
In fact, his last public event was his attendance of the launch of Pakatan’s manifesto in Shah Alam last night.
Sanusi’s baton will be passed to his son Akramshah Sanusi Akhramsyah Muammar Ubaidah, who is reportedly with Mahathir’s party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), which Sanusi had also joined.
