Ku Li menjadi mangsa akibat perebutan kuasa Umno

Sunday, 04 May 2008
Oleh Haji Mustapha Ong

YM.Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah seorang ahli pemimpin kanan UMNO yang pernah diberi kepercayaan pada ketika dahulu sekarang menjadi mangsa akibat pergolakan kuasa politik UMNO.

Apakah kesilapan Ku Li yang menyebabkan beliau ketepikan oleh segelintir ketua-ketua bahagian UMNO di negeri Kelantan mulaidaripada awal tahun Sembilan puluhan.

Saya sedia membongkarkan segala sebab-sebab tanpa sebarang agenda peribadi yang boleh disalah tafsirkan oleh kepimpinan UMNO mengikut keadaan perebutan kuasa UMNO pada ketika ini. Namun demikian, saya juga seorang ahli UMNO yang ada persaudaraan keluarga dengan Ku Li. Kritikan saya ini yang jujur dan ikhlas mungkin akan menyakitkan lagi hati dan perasaan segelintir ketua-ketua bahagian UMNO pusat dan juga di Kelantan.

Ku Li telah banyak berjasa kepada UMNO, rakyat Kelantan dan juga Kerajaan pusat semasa beliau berkhidmat dengan sektur perbankan, Petronas dan selaku Menteri Kewangan dalam Kabinet terdahulu. Sebagai seorang wakil rakyat yang memegang rekod untuk berkhidmat kepada pengundi-pengundi yang berpengkalan di Gua Musang selama 30 tahun, kepimpinan harus memperakui kehebatan Ku Li berpolitik secara jujur dan ikhlas demi bangsa kita.

Saya yakin bahawa banyak penyokong-penyokong politik Ku Li telah merasa amat kecewa cara kepimpinan UMNO pusat dan Kelantan untuk cuba memusnahkan karier politik Ku Li baru-baru ini. Pak Lah telah membidas Ku Li bahawa Ku Li telah kalah memperkukuhkan kesatuan UMNO di Kelantan untuk mengembalikan kuasa politik Melayu kepada Kerajaan Barisan Nasional.

Ku Li does not deserve that the negative comments from PM that Ku Li has failed UMNO and Barisan Nasional Kelantan. In political reality, the core of the centric political power was entrusted to the wrong UMNO divisional leaders (names being withheld) but not to the political prince from Gua Musang. In the last 12th General Election, Ku Li was totally discarded although I did suggest to some of the leaders and friends that UMNO should give Ku Li a chance to lead the BN election machinery in Kelantan. Nothing happen because those UMNO warlords guarded the pillar of power amongst themselves with tremendous amount of political funds given to all the constituencies.

I believe that after 30 years, UMNO should have given Ku Li a chance to change the Kelantan political landscape during this difficult time. Ku Li not only have the Kelantanese support but also from the palace. Ku Li also command high respect from the Chinese, not because his wife is a Chinese but truly because he cares for all his people. To me and some of Ku Li’s friends and supporters, Ku Li deserves to be treated not as a prince only but perhaps as the candidate that could have changed the political mindset of the Kelantanese in favor of the BN government.

It’s too late now, though Ku Li is on another political crusade and that is another story. We should support Ku Li’s call for an UMNO EGM to begin a political discourse and diagnose our problems and issues of the Malays as soon as possible. I differ with the stupid opinion of Mohamed Nazri that it’s a waste of time if the UMNO EGM were to proceed as demanded by many divisions in order to revamp UMNO for the sake of Malay unity.

Last but not least, I share the views of our young and up coming UMNO divisional leaders and MPs like Nur Jazlan, Razali Ibrahim and many others including Khairy and Mukhriz Mahathir to pave the way for those deserving young UMNO Malay leaders.

The system of quota should be disposed off in the name of democracy, so that the capable young ones will have a chance to lead this nation without the political handicap. In fact this issue was raised by me in one of my political dialogues with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on 21st April 2007 at a Merdeka celebration get together program under “Majlis Sepetang Bersama Tun”.

In a netshell, Tun supported my proposal that it’s high time UMNO should review the quota system in the party election in order to rejuvenate UMNO again for the political freedom of intelligent, young and well academically qualified divisional leaders. Why should any senior UMNO leaders feel threaten?