Monday, December 05, 2011

Lost Opportunity

Today my post is on lost opportunity. Obviously I’m talking about lost political opportunity. Another term for ‘lost opportunity’ would be ‘what if …?’

Probably the most known ‘lost opportunity’ would be that of Ku Li ‘losing’ by 43 delegate votes to Dr M in the 1987 UMNO party election. The accusations were rife about 78 branch delegates, unregistered with the Registrar of Societies and thus illegible to vote, allegedly voting and swinging the outcome in Dr M’s favour. Prior to the election, Ku Li was touted to emerge as victor.

Many have been the wistful philosophizing on ‘what if’ Ku Li had won and became PM of Malaysia 23 years ago?

I suppose his ‘victory’ would have screwed up the UMNO's Da Vinci Code(s) kau kau, because then the RA-H-M-A-N prophecy wouldn’t have been fulfilled wakakaka.

Yup, the UMNO’s Da Vinci Code would have gone R-A-H-R-M-A-N, with Ku Li as the 4th PM, and after him perhaps (we are now deep in Speculation Universe) Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and of course Najib (or even The Blue-Eyed Boy wakakaka).

Tantalizing thought, isn’t it?

But today’s post is about another, more recent, ‘lost opportunity’, for none other than AAB.

Imagine, he could still be PM today, having kept Pakatan at bay without the 2008 tsunamic disaster for BN.

And it had to do with the crooked bridge wakakaka.

If you recall, in my post Anwar Ibrahim - AAB: Encounter of the thirsty kind about a ‘chance’ (wakakaka) encounter between AI and AAB, the text went:

I’ve always believed that Anwar wants to return to UMNO – I still do!

In my post A Bridge Too Far - Anwar Ibrahim 3 years ago, Anwar eagerly offered (unsolicited) assistance to AAB on the crooked bridge business. I wrote:

Anwar has offered assistance to the government, saying he could draw from his experience in the government, including as finance minister between 1993 and 1998. That’s a fantastic CV, man.

Anwar
continued: “I would not discount any possible meeting with Abdullah if he were to ask my views on the issues ... like the negotiations with Singapore on the bridge and even information on the negotiations with Indonesia on border issues.”

[…]

Mind you, Anwar assured us his offer does not imply a wish to rejoin UMNO - of course not! Everyone knows the UMNO-led government always gets ‘outsiders’ to negotiate with foreign governments on its behalf.

Alas for him, AAB snubbed him. To many UMNO insiders, Anwar was far too dangerous to allow too close, even for them. Mind you, they have had experience of the way he operated when he was their No 2.

But he’s still trying – his last chance, prior to his Nemesis (Najib) taking over the organization he wants to return to.


I wonder whether I ought to feel a lil' sorry for him, with him seeing the UMNO gates gradually drawing shut to him forever more?

Just imagine, if AAB had not snubbed Anwar, and cleverly invited the latter to handle the negotiations with Singapore and also allowed him to re-join UMNO, the following outcome could (I dare not claim ‘would’) have happened:

1) Dr M would have had an attack of apoplexy, especially when Anwar pinpointed him (Dr M) as the culprit for losing the negotiations to Singapore wakakaka.

Anwar said Dr M had only himself to blame for his pet project being scrapped. Anwar claimed he had been privy to information in the early stages of the project, and declared that Dr M made his first blunder when he sent former finance minister Daim Zainudin to negotiate with former Singapore PM LKY over the terms of the project.

He advised: “I would grant the criticism of many that negotiations with Singapore are not always easy. The solution therefore is to send competent people to negotiate. If you send semi-literates to negotiate, we will lose out in the negotiations”

… wakakaka, because we have to conclude from such a statement that The Great Asian Renaissance Man must have considered Daim a semi-literate.

Whatever, AAB missed/lost the opportunity to use Anwar on the crooked bridge re-negotiations with Singapore to rub that painfully into Dr M’s face. I imagine Dr M would have gone bersek. Perhaps then with AAB at an one-upsmanship advantage, he might possibly have been able to confidently parry away the relentless persecutions by Dr M stemming from the latter's dissatisfaction with the crooked bridge affair.

2) Had AAB invited Anwar to re-join UMNO (a process which I had consistently asserted Anwar was very keen on, at least until Najib took over as party president), perhaps Pakatan might not have done that well in the 2008 GE. There’s no denying that without Anwar, Pakatan in its earliest days would not have remained reasonably cohesive as a formidable alternative to the BN.

3) By getting Anwar to re-join UMNO, there was of course a danger that Anwar might have taken over the party, but the reality was there was already too much of a time gap between the time of Anwar’s expulsion from UMNO and that hypothetical re-joining of UMNO when in His Magnificence's absence, many new powerful UMNO warlords have established party positions and would definitely not permit The Great One to regain his previous party status, as No 2 going on to No 1 wakakaka – such is the nature of the political beast (of any political party, not just UMNO).

Thus by engaging Anwar and allowing him to re-join UMNO, AAB would have made Anwar lose all his political credibility outside UMNO without any visible gain in UMNO, effectively neutering him as a credible political figure in Malaysia.

So, my speculative conclusion is that, had AAB had not lost the opportunity presented by Anwar’s keenness to ‘help’ (wakakaka) with the crooked bridge issue, he could have neutralised both Dr M and Anwar and thus possibly be still PM, without suffering the disastrous 2008 tsunami.

Perhaps his 4th Floor boys (s-i-l and son) should be blamed for his 'lost opportunity'.

Alas, I believe it was a monumental ‘lost opportunity’ in Malaysian politics on a scale as dramatic as that for Ku Li in the 1987 UMNO party crisis.

20 comments:

  1. You make sense when you write about issues with Anwar Ibrahim which are in the public domain.

    The type of speculation written here has similar factual content to Hans Christian Anderson tales..

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  2. Politician 1 to Politician 2 : You should resign for your cows & condo issue ...

    Politician 2 to Politician : How dare you, what about your marrying a starlet without permission .. you should resign first !

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  3. I didn't see any similarity to Hans Christian Anderson heritage, I think its another style..

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  4. what a waste of my time spent in reading this....

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  5. I balked whenever al-bontoti is mentioned. He is a non-person as far as i am concerned. You seem to be fixated on him.
    I can never forgive Dr M for inducting this gay boy to UMNO, much to the chagrin of the party members.
    He owes big apology to us for bringing this Mr Trouble to our political landscape.
    He should be left in Abim preacing nonsense to the pseudo hippies.
    As a consolation, i look forward to his tenure in Sg. Buloh.
    My pretty sons, china dolls and people's wive can live happily. Amen.

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  6. K Temoc ..Your obsession with sdra Anwar amazes me...wonder y..?

    amazed

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  7. Buttercup,
    I am a gay person.
    I work hard to earn an honest living, I have never harmed another person, I have never stolen a single sen in my life.

    I doubt if even one single person in the whole UMNO leadership that you so admire can honestly say that.

    What do you have so strongly against gay people ?

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  8. Anon 2.48pm

    I have nothing against gay people. Infact, two of them are my best pals.
    They are smart, they are creative and exemplary people.
    But this particular ass lover, i cant stomach.
    Cant even stand the sight of him. His smile and show of bravado are fake fronts.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have to admit to visiting this blog for quite a while now and honestly, i fail to see any validity to those accusations that KT has an obsession with THAT person whose wife claimed to be god's gift to humnankind.

    In fact, for someone who almost became our prime minister and having a career veering so dramactically from 'high heaven' to the pit of the dungeon ( so to speak), one would actually expect more and not less be written and speculated about this man.

    But then we have to contend with his hordes of hero-worshippers - those diehard anwaristas.

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  10. Another term for ‘lost opportunity’ would be ‘what if …?’

    So, what if kTemoc had met with Saiful Bukhari before the latter became infatuated with Anwar?

    Would the course of world history be changed because the fellow in court is now kTemoc, and not Anwar?

    What if...?

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  11. Instead of Penny Wong and her female live-in matey, we would have Saiful Bukhari and kTemoc giggling and holding hands in blessed patrimony in Sydney

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  12. One doesn't have to be an "Anwarista" to respect him as a person and support Keadilan as a political movement.
    I consider myself a pretty level headed person, and I don't hero-worship Anwar Ibrahim.
    I really dislike this tarring of anyone who isn't an Anwar-hater or opposes how he's been treated as an "Awarista"......symptom of mental bankruptcy ?

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  13. One of the 'attributes' of an Anwarista is its tendency to immediately go on the defensive at the merest suggestion of any comment perceived to be even slightly negative about its idol.

    Now see how the claws are out, braying and spewing accusations of 'haters' being obsessive and having symptoms of mental bankruptcy.

    "Siapa makan chilli, ........"

    To get respect, the words and actions must match, comprehende?

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  14. But the bananas are a-peeling....

    An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”

    The cleric was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items then a third party - preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband - should cut the items into small pieces and serve them instead.

    According to the cleric, the fruits “resemble the male penis” which could arouse women and “make them think of sex.” When questioned on how women may react when they're grocery shopping, the cleric replied 'this is between them and god'.

    He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.



    http://www.blottr.com/breaking-news/islamic-cleric-women-should-not-be-close-bananas-or-cucumbers-order-avoid-any-sexual-t

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  15. There's something very erotic about a woman in the midst of eating a banana - and obviously enjoying it....

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  16. You expect the man ruling party leaders provide some vision for the country's plan to meet the challenges ahead...

    Like the middle income trap, competition from China, India... etc

    Instead the party congress was virtually in election campaign mode

    Here we are arguing about personalities...

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  17. Is Penang DAP in the process of imploding ?

    Kapal Sink vs. Fatso

    DAP Godfathers vs DAP Warlords

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anon 2:36 PM, December 09, 2011,

    wtf makes you believe there are no warlords in umno, mca, mic, gerakan, supp, ppp, pbs, pkr, pas and so on?

    Just because eunuchs don't have marbles, doesn't mean that the rest of the male species also don't have them

    ReplyDelete
  19. http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=24292:zahid-scoots-off-from-scorpene-dive-leaving-guan-eng-in-a-dangerous-lurch&Itemid=2

    Mohammad Fuad Stephens was the first Chief Minister of Sabah, and also the first Huguan Siou or Paramount Leader of the Kadazandusun community. In 1964, he stepped down as Chief Minister in order to become the first Malaysian federal cabinet member from Sabah

    In 1973, Fuad was appointed as the governor of Sabah, known as the Yang di-Pertua Negara (the post was later known as Yang di-Pertua Negeri). He held this position until 1975. Later that same year, Fuad together with Harris Salleh formed a new political party called Berjaya and proceeded to win the 1976 state election, defeating Tun Mustapha's USNO.

    Forty-four days later, he died in a plane crash, and till now, Sabahans have bitter memories of how and why he died. The suspicion is still strong that the Umno-led federal government was behind the crash as Fuad had allegedly wanted to pull Sabah out from the Federation due to a deadlock over negotiations for oil royalty.

    Recently, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who was then the Finance minister and the architect of the Petronas Development Act 1974, recounted to the East Malaysian press of how he nearly died in that crash with Fuad. At the last moment, an official had quietly motioned him to leave the plane and under impression that he was needed to clear some matter or other, he did so. The revelation further bolstered the view of many Malaysians that Fuad was murdered.

    WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE SO LUCKY?

    ReplyDelete
  20. DAP Mampuslah....
    Hidup UMNO !

    ReplyDelete