For a Few Days in 1988, Malaysia Actually Had a Chinese Prime Minister
Despite what your granduncle says at family gatherings when talking about politics, there’s actually nothing illegal or unconstitutional about a non-Malay becoming a Prime Minister.
(Cilisos) – [This article was originally written by SOSCILI. To read this article in BM, click here!]
In the past week or so, speculation has been rife that the Harapan govt may cease to exist; Dr Mahathir suddenly found himself at the end of several rumours regarding a possible vote of no-confidence that might see him removed as Prime Minister.
You can read more about that here, but it does seem as tho for now anyway those rumours are just that – rumours. That being said, it won’t be the first time that Mahathir would suddenly find himself out of Putrajaya. In fact, the last time he was ‘unwillingly’ pushed out of office, a certain Chinese federal minister ended up as the (acting) Prime Minister of Malaysia.
It all started with the biggest civil war in UMNO’s history
We’re going to be cramming down years of political turmoil into a few paragraphs here, but stick with us okay. It began in 1987, when for the first time in Dr M’s tenure as UMNO President, he was actually being challenged for UMNO’s top post during the year’s party elections. And it wasn’t just anyone giving up a fight, it was former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, better known as Ku Li.
Ku Li in the middle shaking hands with Mahathir. Image from Utusan
“There existed two ‘teams’ in UMNO. Team A, led by Dr Mahathir, were a group of liberal Malay nationalists, while Team B had Tengku Razaleigh at the helm with a conservative Malay nationalist approach,” – Mohd Faidz Mohd Zain, et al, UKM researchers, as translated from their research paper
It was a tough battle, with big names such as Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Hussein Onn and Abdullah Badawi siding with Ku Li’s Team B, while Mahathir had his right hand men Ghafar Baba and a young Anwar Ibrahim by his side in Team A. In the end tho, Mahathir’s Team A would win big at the UMNO elections, with Dr M winning the presidency thanks to 761 votes compared to Ku Li’s 718. Many of the top posts also went to Team A.
Mahathir following the announcement of his narrow win at the 1987 UMNO party elections. Image form Utusan
Ku Li and co weren’t pleased with the results to say the least, and a number of them would file a lawsuit, claiming that the election results should be voided due to a number of irregularities over a number of unapproved UMNO branches. Following a long and drawn out court battle, the judge in charge, Justice Harun Hashim would make the stunning decision on Feb 4 1988 to deem UMNO ‘unlawful’, deregistering the party.
“Very sadly, I have to make a finding in law that, at the material time, UMNO was an unlawful society,” – Judge Harun Hashim, as quoted by Malaysian Bar
Following that decision, Mahathir, with no more party behind him, could no longer be the Prime Minister. As such, it led to…
Malaysia’s first and only Chinese (Acting) Prime Minister…
Ling Liong Sik was the MCA President and Transport Minister during the time of the drama, and from 4 Feb 1988 to 16 Feb 1988, Malaysia’s Acting Prime Minister too due to the trouble that UMNO was in.
